Is Reuse All You Need? A Systematic Comparison of Regular Expression Composition Strategies

Abstract: Composing regular expressions (regexes) is a common but challenging engineering activity. Software engineers struggle with regex complexity, leading to defects, performance issues, and security vulnerabilities. Researchers have proposed tools to synthesize regexes automatically, and recent generative AI techniques are also promising. Meanwhile, developers commonly reuse existing regexes from Internet sources and codebases. In this study, we ask a simple question: are regex composition tasks unique enough to merit dedicated machinery, or is reuse all we need? We answer this question through a systematic evaluation of state-of-the-art regex reuse and synthesis strategies. We begin by collecting a novel dataset of regex composition tasks mined from GitHub and RegExLib (55,137 unique tasks with solution regexes). To address the absence of an automated regex reuse formulation, we introduce reuse-by-example, a Programming by Example (PbE) approach that leverages a curated database of production-ready regexes. Although all approaches can solve these composition tasks accurately, reuse-by-example and LLMs both do far better over the range of metrics we applied. Our evaluation then uses multiple dimensions, including a novel metric, to compare reuse-by-example against two synthesis approaches: formal regex synthesizers and generative AI (LLMs). Although all approaches can solve these composition tasks accurately, reuse and LLMs both do far better over the range of metrics we applied. Ceteris paribus, prefer the cheaper solution -- for regex composition, perhaps reuse is all you need. Our findings provide actionable insights for developers selecting regex composition strategies and inform the design of future tools to improve regex reliability in software systems.