Introduction to Regular Expressions

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

This is the third book I have read on databases & big data this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

Finally, a book that treats databases & big data with the care it deserves.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.