User-friendly functions for extracting a data table (row for each match, column for each group) from non-tabular text data using regular expressions, and for melting columns that match a regular expression. Patterns are defined using a readable syntax that makes it easy to build complex patterns in terms of simpler, re-usable sub-patterns. Named R arguments are translated to column names in the output; capture groups without names are used internally in order to provide a standard interface to three regular expression C libraries ('PCRE', RE2', ICU'). Output can also include numeric columns via user-specified type conversion functions.