Are regular expressions worth the hassle?

Question

It strikes me that regular expressions are not understood well by the majority of developers. It also strikes me that for a lot of problems where regular expressions are use

Answer 1

Professional developers should be familiar with basic syntax

At the very least. In all the years long I've been a professional developer I haven't come across a developer that wouldn't know what Regular Expressions are. It's true, not everybody likes using them or is very good at knowing its syntax, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't use them. Developers should learn the syntax and regular expressions should be used.

It's like: "Ok. We have Lambda expressions, but who cares, I can still do it the old fashioned way."

Not learning key aspects of professional development is pure laziness and shouldn't be tolerated for too long.