# regex-utils

5 Hacker News commenters recommended regex-utils and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Lets developers build complex regexes from smaller parts, with set operations like complement and intersection, and can generate passwords from regex constraints.

## Why people recommend it

- Set operations like complement and intersection (2 comments): "Your regex-utils library also interesting, especially the set operations part." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272143)) "You can really built cool tools with complement / intersection." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47253625))
- Composing complex regex from smaller parts (1 comments): "The ability to create a complicated regex from smaller pieces combined in a logical way is insane." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272337))
- Generating passwords from regex constraints (1 comments): "you can specify the constraints as regular expressions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358374))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [regex crate for Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/regex.md): 9 recommend
- [PCRE](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pcre.md): 6 recommend
- [RE# regex engine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/re-sharp-regex-engine.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "regex-utils", https://hackerapproved.com/p/regex-utils/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).