STRling - Ruby Binding

Part of the STRling Project

The Universal Regular Expression Compiler. STRling is a next-generation production-grade syntax designed to make Regex readable, maintainable, and robust. It abstracts the cryptic nature of raw regex strings into a clean, object-oriented, and strictly typed interface that compiles to standard PCRE2 (or native) patterns.

💿 Installation

gem install strling

Or add to your Gemfile:

gem 'strling'

📦 Usage

Here is how to match a US Phone number (e.g., 555-0199) using STRling in Ruby:

require 'strling'

# Build the phone pattern using the Simply fluent API
# Match: ^(\d{3})[-. ]?(\d{3})[-. ]?(\d{4})$
s = Strling::Simply

phone_pattern = s.merge(
  s.start,                            # Start of line
  s.capture(s.digit.times(3)),        # 3 digits (area code)
  s.may(s.any_of('-', '.', ' ')),     # Optional separator
  s.capture(s.digit.times(3)),        # 3 digits (exchange)
  s.may(s.any_of('-', '.', ' ')),     # Optional separator
  s.capture(s.digit.times(4)),        # 4 digits (line number)
  s.end                               # End of line
)

# Compile to regex string and test
regex = Regexp.new(phone_pattern.to_s)
puts regex.match?('555-123-4567') # true

Note: This compiles to the optimized regex: ^(\d{3})[-. ]?(\d{3})[-. ]?(\d{4})$

🚀 Why STRling?

Regular Expressions are powerful but notorious for being "write-only" code. STRling solves this by treating Regex as Software, not a string.

• 🧩 Composability: Regex strings are hard to merge. STRling lets you build reusable components (e.g., ip_address, email) and safely compose them into larger patterns without breaking operator precedence or capturing groups.
• 🛡️ Type Safety: Catch syntax errors, invalid ranges, and incompatible flags at compile time inside your IDE, not at runtime when your app crashes.
• 🧠 IntelliSense & Autocomplete: Stop memorizing cryptic codes like (?<=...). Use fluent, self-documenting methods like Simply.look_behind(...) with full IDE discovery.
• 📖 Readability First: Code is read far more often than it is written. STRling patterns describe intent, making them understandable to junior developers and future maintainers instantly.
• 🌍 Polyglot Engine: One mental model, 17 languages. Whether you are writing Rust, Python, or TypeScript, the syntax and behavior remain identical.

🏗️ Architecture

STRling follows a strict compiler pipeline architecture to ensure consistency across all ecosystems:

1. Parse: DSL -> AST (Abstract Syntax Tree)
   • Converts the human-readable STRling syntax into a structured tree.
2. Compile: AST -> IR (Intermediate Representation)
   • Transforms the AST into a target-agnostic intermediate representation, optimizing structures like literal sequences.
3. Emit: IR -> Target Regex
   • Generates the final, optimized regex string for the specific target engine (e.g., PCRE2, JS, Python re).

📚 Documentation

• API Reference: Detailed documentation for this binding.
• Project Hub: The main STRling repository.
• Specification: The core grammar and semantic specifications.

🌐 Connect

💖 Support

If you find STRling useful, consider starring the repository and contributing!