  The explosive rate of information growth and availability often makes it
increasingly difficult to locate information pertinent to your needs. These
problems are often compounded when keyword based search methodologies are not
adequate for describing the information you seek. In many instances,
information such as Web site URLs, phone numbers, etc. can often be better
identified through the use of a textual pattern than by keyword. For example,
many more phone numbers could be picked up by a search for the pattern (XXX)
XXX-XXXX, where X could be any digit, than would be by a search for any
specific phone number (i.e. the keyword approach). Programming languages
typically allow for the matching of textual patterns via the usage of regular
expressions. This tutorial will provide an introduction to the basics of
programming regular expressions as well as provide an introduction to how
regular expressions can be applied to data processing tasks such as information
extraction and search refinement.
