Regxlar

A Java library for repeatable generating strings at random from a regular grammar. Regxlar is based on the library http://www.brics.dk/~amoeller/automaton/.

Usage

Prerequisites

• Apache Maven 3
• Java >= 1.7

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/umaqsud/regxlar.git
cd regxlar
mvn clean package

Regxlar is now installed in regxlar/target

Example

Let's take a simple regular expression for email addresses: [a-z0-9]{5,10}\\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{5,10}\\@[a-z0-9]{5,10}\\.[a-z]{2,4}. Using Regxlar you can now generate strings matching this regular expression. If you need generate repeatable strings you can use a seeded random number generator.

  Regxlar regxlar = new Regxlar("[a-z0-9]{5,10}\\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{5,10}\\@[a-z0-9]{5,10}\\.[a-z]{2,4}");

  // Generate string at random
  String random = regxlar.generateNext();
  System.out.println(random);
  
  // it prints e.g. 0xl8k.xi0q7a@6xo0fc8ut8.adgp
  
  // Generate repeatable string using a seeded random number generator
  double seed = 0.5;
  String random1 = regxlar.generateNext(new SeedRandomGenerator(seed));
  String random2 = regxlar.generateNext(new SeedRandomGenerator(seed));
  System.out.println(random1);
  System.out.println(random2);
  System.out.println(random1.equals(random2));
  
  // it prints
  // a80w2n.WC92MB3@bil03i2hs.pnqy
  // a80w2n.WC92MB3@bil03i2hs.pnqy
  // true

Features and limitations

• generates strings at random matching a regular expression
• generates repeatable strings using a seeded random number generator

Regxlar does not support all valid regular expressions. Future versions might support further regular expression syntaxes. Regular expressions are built from the following abstract syntax:

 regexp       ::= unionexp		
              |			
 unionexp     ::= interexp | unionexp							(union)	
              |   interexp		
 interexp     ::= concatexp & interexp						    (intersection)							[OPTIONAL]
              |   concatexp		
 concatexp    ::= repeatexp concatexp							(concatenation)	
              |   repeatexp		
 repeatexp    ::= repeatexp ?									(zero or one occurrence)	
              |   repeatexp *									(zero or more occurrences)	
              |   repeatexp +									(one or more occurrences)	
              |   repeatexp {n}								    (n occurrences)	
              |   repeatexp {n,}								(n or more occurrences)	
              |   repeatexp {n,m}								(n to m occurrences, including both)	
              |   complexp		
 complexp     ::= ~ complexp									(complement)							[OPTIONAL]
              |	  charclassexp		
 charclassexp ::= [ charclasses ]								(character class)	
              |	  [^ charclasses ]							    (negated character class)	
              |	  simpleexp		
 charclasses  ::= charclass charclasses		
              |	  charclass		
 charclass    ::= charexp - charexp							    (character range, including end-points)	
              |	  charexp		
 simpleexp    ::= charexp		
              |	  .											    (any single character)	
              |	  #											    (the empty language)					[OPTIONAL]
              |	  @											    (any string)							[OPTIONAL]
              |	  " <Unicode string without double-quotes> "    (a string)	
              |	  ( )											(the empty string)	
              |	  ( unionexp )								    (precedence override)	
              |	  < <identifier> >							    (named automaton)						[OPTIONAL]
              |	  <n-m>										    (numerical interval)					[OPTIONAL]
 charexp      ::= <Unicode character>							(a single non-reserved character)	
              |	  \ <Unicode character> 						(a single character)

For further information about this syntax consider this documentation: http://www.brics.dk/automaton/doc/index.html?dk/brics/automaton/Automaton.html.

License

Regxlar is licensed under the Apache Software License Version 2.0. For more information please consult the LICENSE file.