Master character classes: build sets of allowed characters, sweep whole ranges, flip a set inside-out with negation, and lean on the shorthands every hunter knows by heart.

Control how many times something repeats — from "maybe once" to "exactly three".

Match positions, not characters — pin your pattern to the start, the end, or the seams between words.

Bundle characters with parentheses, branch with alternation, then capture a match and recall it later in the same pattern.

Peek without consuming — zero-width assertions that check what comes before or after a spot, then step back and let the real match continue.

Match the formats you meet every day — integers, decimals, hex colours, times, dates, emails, slugs, IPs, ZIPs and more.

Anyone can write a regex that works. A hunter writes the SHORTEST one that works. This is regex golf — separate the monsters from the innocents in the fewest characters, one sharpening trick at a time, and beat par on every board.

Real text — receipts, logs, emails — combining everything you learned