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The "About This Book" section of the pocket reference has the statement "This book starts with a general introduction to regular expressions." This is true, I think the author does a great job of giving a general definition of a regular expression and patern matching. The author then presents a good description of the different types of regular expression engines, regex metacharacters, modes, and constructs. After the good introduction, the rest of the book is basically regular expression syntax with a few examples thrown in. This is what I expect from a pocket reference about regular expressions. Even though I use regular expressions quitea a bit, I still find my self looking up syntax. This pocket reference is just what I need (sitting next to the monitor) to quickly look up syntax. Although the introduction is a great overview for someone new to regular expressions, it does not have enough examples and is not a book for beginners. Nor do I think the author intended it to be for someone new to regular expressions.

The cost of the book is $12.95, which is a little steep in my opinion. Yet, as written on the back cover, "As a companion to the groundbreaking "definitive" book on the topic, Master Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl, this small pocket reference will help you sort out the syntax and quirks of regexes.." and is worth having on the bookself or next to the monitor.