Regex - String contains 6 digits - regex

I'm trying to write a regex to parse a bank sort code from a database.
The reason I need a regex is that the sort code might be contained in a sentence.
But also, it might not be a sort code at all because the people entering data into the database some times put bank account numbers and phone numbers into the sort code column.
I can use
^[^0-9]*[0-9]{6}[^\d]*$
which works on
"blah123456blah"
but not on
"Emloyee 12's srt code : 123456"
Anything else I've tried gives me a match for 6 or more digits within a string (which is then most likely a bank account number).
Any help is greatly appreciated.

You say you are using
[0-9]{2}\s*-?\s*[0-9]{2}\s*-?\s*[0-9]{2}
To add the boundaries like you need, add (^|[^0-9]) (either the string start position (^) or (|) a non-digit ([^0-9])) in front and ([^0-9]|$) (matching a non-digit or the end of string position ($)) at the end:
(^|[^0-9])[0-9]{2}\s*-?\s*[0-9]{2}\s*-?\s*[0-9]{2}([^0-9]|$)
See the regex demo.

Related

Regex picking up string that contain 2 dash

I am new to regrex.
Will want to pick up a list of bank number with many others text in it.
The bank number can be e.g 111-123456-1 or 111-12345-1 or 111-1-123456
How should i write this regex.
Thanks in advance
Use this regular expression
\d+-\d+-\d+
It will match the bank numbers that you gave as examples:
111-123456-1 // Matches
111-12345-1 // Matches
111-1-123456 // Matches
If you want a better understanding of the regex, check this out:
https://regex101.com/r/ncPZoQ/1
Credits to #ALFA

Regex for for Phone Numbers allowing for only 6 to 20 characters

Regex beginner here. I've been trying to tackle this rule for phone numbers to no avail and would appreciate some advice:
Minimum 6 characters
Maximum 20 characters
Must contain numbers
Can contain these symbols ()+-.
Do not match if all the numbers included are the same (ie. 111111)
I managed to build two of the following pieces but I'm unable to put them together.
Here's what I've got:
(^(\d)(?!\1+$)\d)
([0-9()-+.,]{6,20})
Many thanks in advance!
I'd go about it by first getting a list of all possible phone numbers (thanks #CAustin for the suggested improvements):
lst_phone_numbers = re.findall('[0-9+()-]{6,20}',your_text)
And then filtering out the ones that do not comply with statement 5 using whatever programming language you're most comfortable.
Try this RegEx:
(?:([\d()+-])(?!\1+$)){6,20}
Explained:
(?: creates a non-capturing group
(\d|[()+-]) creates a group to match a digit, parenthesis, +, or -
(?!\1+$) this will not return a match if it matches the value found from #2 one or more times until the end of the string
{6,20} requires 6-20 matches from the non-capturing group in #1
Try this :
((?:([0-9()+\-])(?!\2{5})){6,20})
So , this part ?!\2{5} means how many times is allowed for each one from the pattern to be repeated like this 22222 and i put 5 as example and you could change it as you want .

Regex for validation of a street number

I'm using an online tool to create contests. In order to send prizes, there's a form in there asking for user information (first name, last name, address,... etc).
There's an option to use regular expressions to validate the data entered in this form.
I'm struggling with the regular expression to put for the street number (I'm located in Belgium).
A street number can be the following:
1234
1234a
1234a12
begins with a number (max 4 digits)
can have letters as well (max 2 char)
Can have numbers after the letter(s) (max3)
I came up with the following expression:
^([0-9]{1,4})([A-Za-z]{1,2})?([0-9]{1,3})?$
But the problem is that as letters and second part of numbers are optional, it allows to enter numbers with up to 8 digits, which is not optimal.
1234 (first group)(no letters in the second group) 5678 (third group)
If one of you can tip me on how to achieve the expected result, it would be greatly appreciated !
You might use this regex:
^\d{1,4}([a-zA-Z]{1,2}\d{1,3}|[a-zA-Z]{1,2}|)$
where:
\d{1,4} - 1-4 digits
([a-zA-Z]{1,2}\d{1,3}|[a-zA-Z]{1,2}|) - optional group, which can be
[a-zA-Z]{1,2}\d{1,3} - 1-2 letters + 1-3 digits
or
[a-zA-Z]{1,2} - 1-2 letters
or
empty
\d{0,4}[a-zA-Z]{0,2}\d{0,3}
\d{0,4} The first groupe matches a number with 4 digits max
[a-zA-Z]{0,2} The second groupe matches a char with 2 digit in max
\d{0,3} The first groupe matches a number with 3 digits max
You have to keep the last two groups together, not allowing the last one to be present, if the second isn't, e.g.
^\d{1,4}(?:[a-zA-z]{1,2}\d{0,3})?$
or a little less optimized (but showing the approach a bit better)
^\d{1,4}(?:[a-zA-z]{1,2}(?:\d{1,3})?)?$
As you are using this for a validation I assumed that you don't need the capturing groups and replaced them with non-capturing ones.
You might want to change the first number check to [1-9]\d{0,3} to disallow leading zeros.
Thank you so much for your answers ! I tried Sebastian's solution :
^\d{1,4}(?:[a-zA-z]{1,2}\d{0,3})?$
And it works like a charm ! I still don't really understand what the ":" stand for, but I'll try to figure it out next time i have to fiddle with Regex !
Have a nice day,
Stan
The first digit cannot be 0.
There shouldn't be other symbols before and after the number.
So:
^[1-9]\d{0,3}(?:[a-zA-Z]{1,2}\d{0,3})?$
The ?: combination means that the () construction does not create a matching substring.
Here is the regex with tests for it.

How Can I Create a RegEx Pattern that will Get N Words Using Custom Word Boundary?

I need a RegEx pattern that will return the first N words using a custom word boundary that is the normal RegEx white space (\s) plus punctuation like .,;:!?-*_
EDIT #1: Thanks for all your comments.
To be clear:
I'd like to set the characters that would be the word delimiters
Lets call this the "Delimiter Set", or strDelimiters
strDelimiters = ".,;:!?-*_"
nNumWordsToFind = 5
A word is defined as any contiguous text that does NOT contain any character in strDelimiters
The RegEx word boundary is any contiguous text that contains one or more of the characters in strDelimiters
I'd like to build the RegEx pattern to get/return the first nNumWordsToFind using the strDelimiters.
EDIT #2: Sat, Aug 8, 2015 at 12:49 AM US CT
#maraca definitely answered my question as originally stated.
But what I actually need is to return the number of words ≤ nNumWordsToFind.
So if the source text has only 3 words, but my RegEx asks for 4 words, I need it to return the 3 words. The answer provided by maraca fails if nNumWordsToFind > number of actual words in the source text.
For example:
one,two;three-four_five.six:seven eight nine! ten
It would see this as 10 words.
If I want the first 5 words, it would return:
one,two;three-four_five.
I have this pattern using the normal \s whitespace, which works, but NOT exactly what I need:
([\w]+\s+){<NumWordsOut>}
where <NumWordsOut> is the number of words to return.
I have also found this word boundary pattern, but I don't know how to use it:
a "real word boundary" that detects the edge between an ASCII letter
and a non-letter.
(?i)(?<=^|[^a-z])(?=[a-z])|(?<=[a-z])(?=$|[^a-z])
However, I would want my words to allow numbers as well.
IAC, I have not been able how to use the above custom word boundary pattern to return the first N words of my text.
BTW, I will be using this in a Keyboard Maestro macro.
Can anyone help?
TIA.
All you have to do is to adapt your pattern ([\w]+\s+){<NumWordsOut>} to, including some special cases:
^[\s.,;:!?*_-]*([^\s.,;:!?*_-]+([\s.,;:!?*_-]+|$)){<NumWordsOut>}
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Match any amount of delimiters before the first word
Match a word (= at least one non-delimiter)
The word has to be followed by at least one delimiter
Or it can be at the end of the string (in case no delimiter follows at the end)
Repeat 2. to 4. <NumWordsOut> times
Note how I changed the order of the -, it has to be at the start or end, otherwise it needs to be escaped: \-.
Thanks to #maraca for providing the complete answer to my question.
I just wanted to post the Keyboard Maestro macro that I have built using #maraca's RegEx pattern for anyone interested in the complete solution.
See KM Forum Macro: Get a Max of N Words in String Using RegEx

Excel Sort by 2nd character in alphanumeric string

I have a column in an Excel spreadsheet that contains the following:
### - 3-digit number
#### - 4-digit number
A### - character with 3-digits
#A## - digit followed by character then 2 more digits
There may also be superfluous characters to the right of these strings.
I would like to sort the entire spreadsheet by this column in the following order (ascending or descending):
the first three types of strings alphabetically as expected (NOT ASCII-Betically!)
Then the #A## by the character first, then by the first digit.
Example:
000...999, 0000...9999, A000...Z999, 0A00...9A99, 0B00...9B99...9Z99
I feel there is a very simple solution using a regular expression or macro but my VBa and RegExp are pretty rusty (a friend asked me for this but I' m more of a C-guy these days). I have read some solutions which involve splitting the data into additional columns which I would be fine with.
I would settle for a link to a good guide. Eternal thanks in advance.
If you want to sort by second character regardless of the content ahead and behind, then regex ^.(.) represents second character match...