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what is i-hate-regex fr?

geongeorge/i-hate-regex — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-26

4,565VueAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

tl;dr

The source code for ihateregex.io, a website that makes regular expressions less scary by showing a visual railroad diagram of what each part does, with a live test area and a library of common patterns like email and username.

vibe map

mindmap
  root((i-hate-regex))
    What it does
      Visualize regex patterns
      Live pattern testing
      Pattern library
    Tech Stack
      Vue
      Nuxt.js
      Regexper
    Use Cases
      Learn regex visually
      Find common patterns
      Embed diagrams
    Audience
      Web developers
      Beginners

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

what do people make with this?

VIBE 1

Look up a ready-made regular expression for common patterns like email addresses, IP addresses, or usernames without writing one from scratch.

VIBE 2

Understand a confusing regular expression by viewing its visual breakdown into named parts.

VIBE 3

Contribute a new regex pattern to the site by adding an entry to the JSON data file with test strings and an optional explanation.

what's the stack?

VueNuxt.jsJavaScriptJSON

how it stacks up fr

geongeorge/i-hate-regexxyxiao001/vue-cropperimsyy/home
Stars4,5654,5674,546
LanguageVueVueVue
Setup difficultyeasyeasymoderate
Complexity2/52/53/5
Audiencedeveloperdeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

how do i run it?

Difficulty · easy time til it works · 5min

in plain english

iHateRegex is the source code for ihateregex.io, a website that helps people understand and use regular expressions without needing to already know how they work. Regular expressions are a compact notation used in programming to search for patterns in text, and they are notoriously hard to read. This site makes them more approachable by showing a visual diagram of what each part of an expression does, alongside a testing area where you can see which strings it matches. The site works as a cheat sheet and a reference library. Each entry in the collection has a title (like "username" or "email address" or "IP address"), a short description of what it matches, the actual expression, and a visual breakdown of the expression's structure. You can also embed the diagram directly into your own website or blog post. The project is built with Nuxt.js, which is a framework for building web applications with Vue. To run it locally, you install the dependencies with yarn and then start a development server. The regex definitions are stored as JSON files in a static folder, which makes it easy to add new entries without touching any application code. Contributing a new regex is straightforward: you add an entry to the data.json file with the expression and some test strings, and optionally create a markdown file with a longer explanation of how the expression works. The project welcomes outside contributions and the process is well documented in the README. The visual diagram component is built on top of an open-source tool called Regexper, which converts regular expressions into railroad diagrams. The rest of the interface was built by the project's author.

prompts (copy fr)

prompt 1
I want to run the ihateregex.io site locally and add a new regex pattern for matching URLs. Walk me through adding an entry to data.json with the expression and test strings.
prompt 2
Using the i-hate-regex project, show me how to embed the visual regex railroad diagram for the email pattern into my own blog post or documentation page.
prompt 3
I'm building a Nuxt.js reference site similar to ihateregex.io. How does this project structure its regex data files and generate a page for each pattern?

Frequently asked questions

what is i-hate-regex fr?

The source code for ihateregex.io, a website that makes regular expressions less scary by showing a visual railroad diagram of what each part does, with a live test area and a library of common patterns like email and username.

What language is i-hate-regex written in?

Mainly Vue. The stack also includes Vue, Nuxt.js, JavaScript.

How hard is i-hate-regex to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is i-hate-regex for?

Mainly developer.

peek the repo → explain another one

This repo across BitVibe Labs

double-check against the repo, no cap.