For everyone out there that hears the words "regular expressions in PHP" and cringes, there's a new article over on SitePoint that just might be for you.

In their latest, Using Regular Expressions in PHP, they start from the very beginning, talking about what regular expressions are and why you should use them. They give you some sample code, as well, so that you can see how they're used in real life, and how you use some of the syntax, including the special characters, like "^" and "$" in your expressions.

It's a short article, but it's a good intro to how regular expressions work and how they can be useful. But, don't expect it to go much beyond that. It is nice that they end it with the syntax for the expressions. Too many tutorials on this subject spread it out way too much and don't give a good, clear example of how to use them.