Who Should Read this Book

If you're new to regular expressions, but you're comfortable with the Java language, then this book is intended for you. If you have a background in regular expressions, but you need a reference for Java's regular expression package, you'll also find this book useful. However, if you're new to Java, you may find that you're better served by reading some introductory texts first. There are scores of good introductory books available, though my recommendations are Head First Java by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates (O'Reilly & Associates, 2003) and Thinking in Java, Third Edition by Bruce Eckel (Prentice Hall, 2002). You can't go wrong with either book.