# Having your clients write regular expressions **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [September 10, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230 "2006-09-10T22:20:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230/1 "2006-09-10T22:20:04Z")
I’m sure the last thing you would want your client to do is lear regular expressions and how to write them. I have a scenario where I need to filter results retireved from my program. The results can contain letters, numbers, or both. The problem is that he needs to filter them using ranges, exact matches, etc. Obviously regular expressions can do this. Here is my main problem: He needs to do 15-90. You can’t do 15-90 in a regular expression. Basically I need an alternative to regular expressions that my client can understand, but still gives him the ability to do some complex comparisons. Any ideas? Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230/2 "2006-09-10T22:51:34Z")
Hi – On Sun, 10 Sep 2006, Ben J. wrote: > I’m sure the last thing you would want your client to do is lear regular > expressions and how to write them. I have a scenario where I need to > filter results retireved from my program. The results can contain > letters, numbers, or both. The problem is that he needs to filter them > using ranges, exact matches, etc. Obviously regular expressions can do > this. > > Here is my main problem: He needs to do 15-90. You can’t do 15-90 in a > regular expression. Do you mean matching any integer from 15-90? If so, you could use something like: /\b(?:1[5-9])|(?:[2-8][0-9])|90\b/ But I can understand that you don’t expect your client to come up with that 🙂 > Basically I need an alternative to regular expressions that my client > can understand, but still gives him the ability to do some complex > comparisons. > > Any ideas? There was a library called Regexp::English, by Florian G., though I can’t find it any more. I’m not sure whether it would help, though… It gives you an English-language way to build patterns, but you still have to know what you’re building. I suspect you might be best off creating some kind of little wrapper language yourself. David > Thanks for your help. > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > > – David A. Black | removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Author of “Ruby for Rails” [1] | Ruby/Rails training & consultancy [3] DABlog (DAB’s Weblog) [2] | Co-director, Ruby Central, Inc. [4] [1] [Ruby for Rails](http://www.manning.com/black) | [3] [http://www.rubypowerandlight.com](http://www.rubypowerandlight.com) [2] [http://dablog.rubypal.com](http://dablog.rubypal.com) | [4] [http://www.rubycentral.org](http://www.rubycentral.org) ---
**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230/3 "2006-09-10T22:53:35Z")
Check out ez\_where, [http://www.brainspl.at/articles/2006/06/30/new-release-of-ez\_where-plugin](http://www.brainspl.at/articles/2006/06/30/new-release-of-ez_where-plugin) It might help with you range problem or you could do /(1[5-9]|[2-8]\d|90)/ which might not be the best way of matching that but i believe it’ll work ---
**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230/4 "2006-09-10T23:27:37Z")
Let them provide the SQL where clauses? ---
**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230/5 "2006-09-11T00:01:41Z")
It could be a Very Bad Idea, but either way the plugin’s really nifty. ---
**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230/6 "2006-09-11T00:37:19Z")
Ian L. wrote: > Let them provide the SQL where clauses? What I’m doing doesn’t interact with the database at all. I just need to filter results that I retrieve. I have no control over what I receive, which is why I need to filter with regular expressions. ---
**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-your-clients-write-regular-expressions/68230/7 "2006-09-11T00:50:40Z")
Ben J. wrote: > Ian L. wrote: > > > Let them provide the SQL where clauses? > > What I’m doing doesn’t interact with the database at all. I just need to > filter results that I retrieve. I have no control over what I receive, > which is why I need to filter with regular expressions. Regexps cannot do everything for you. Use the regexp to find out _whether_ there are numbers and then match against a Range constructed from the 15-19 syntax.