First of all I apologize if this question is too naive or has been repeated earlier. I tried to find it in the forum but I'm posting it as a question because I failed to find an answer.
I have a data frame with column names as follows;
head(rownames(u))
[1] "A17-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240" "A18-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240" "B19-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240"
[4] "B20-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240" "A21-R-Transgenic-C-3.AT2G41240" "A22-R-Transgenic-C-3.AT2G41240"
What I want is to use regex in R to extract the string in between the first dash and the last period.
Anticipated results are,
[1] "R-Null-C-3" "R-Null-C-3" "R-Null-C-3"
[4] "R-Null-C-3" "R-Transgenic-C-3" "R-Transgenic-C-3"
I tried following with no luck...
gsub("^[^-]*-|.+\\.","\\2", rownames(u))
gsub("^.+-","", rownames(u))
sub("^[^-]*.|\\..","", rownames(u))
Would someone be able to help me with this problem?
Thanks a lot in advance.
Shani.
Here is a solution to be used with gsub:
v <- c("A17-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240", "A18-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240", "B19-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240", "B20-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240", "A21-R-Transgenic-C-3.AT2G41240", "A22-R-Transgenic-C-3.AT2G41240")
gsub("^[^-]*-([^.]+).*", "\\1", v)
See IDEONE demo
The regex matches:
^[^-]* - zero or more characters other than -
- - a hyphen
([^.]+) - Group 1 matching and capturing one or more characters other than a dot
.* - any characters (even including a newline since perl=T is not used), any number of occurrences up to the end of the string.
This can easily be achieved with the following regex:
-([^.]+)
# look for a dash
# then match everything that is not a dot
# and save it to the first group
See a demo on regex101.com. Outputs are:
R-Null-C-3
R-Null-C-3
R-Null-C-3
R-Null-C-3
R-Transgenic-C-3
R-Transgenic-C-3
Regex
-([^.]+)\\.
Description
- matches the character - literally
1st Capturing group ([^\\.]+)
[^\.]+ match a single character not present in the list below
Quantifier: + Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed [greedy]
. matches the character . literally
\\. matches the character . literally
Debuggex Demo
Output
MATCH 1
1. [4-14] `R-Null-C-3`
MATCH 2
1. [29-39] `R-Null-C-3`
MATCH 3
1. [54-64] `R-Null-C-3`
MATCH 4
1. [85-95] `R-Null-C-3`
MATCH 5
1. [110-126] `R-Transgenic-C-3`
MATCH 6
1. [141-157] `R-Transgenic-C-3`
This seems an appropriate case for lookarounds:
library(stringr)
str_extract(v, '(?<=-).*(?=\\.)')
where
(?<= ... ) is a positive lookbehind, i.e. it looks for a - immediately before the next captured group;
.* is any character . repeated 0 or more times *;
(?= ... ) is a positive lookahead, i.e. it looks for a period (escaped as \\.) following what is actually captured.
I used stringr::str_extract above because it's more direct in terms of what you're trying to do. It is possible to do the same thing with sub (or gsub), but the regex has to be uglier:
sub('.*?(?<=-)(.*)(?=\\.).*', '\\1', v, perl = TRUE)
.*? looks for any character . from 0 to as few as possible times *? (lazy evaluation);
the lookbehind (?<=-) is the same as above;
now the part we want .* is put in a captured group (...), which we'll need later;
the lookahead (?=\\.) is the same;
.* captures any character, repeated 0 to as many as possible times (here the end of the string).
The replacement is \\1, which refers to the first captured group from the pattern regex.
Related
there are 4 strings as shown below
ABC_FIXED_20220720_VALUEABC.csv
ABC_FIXED_20220720_VALUEABCQUERY_answer.csv
ABC_FIXED_20220720_VALUEDEF.csv
ABC_FIXED_20220720_VALUEDEFQUERY_answer.csv
Two strings are considered as matched based on a matching substring value (VALUEABC, VALUEDEF in the above shown strings). Thus I am looking to match first 2 (having VALUEABC) and then next 2 (having VALUEDEF). The matched strings are identified based on the same value returned for one regex group.
What I tried so far
ABC.*[0-9]{8}_(.*[^QUERY_answer])(?:QUERY_answer)?.csv
This returns regex group-1 (from (.*[^QUERY_answer])) value "VALUEABC" for first 2 strings and "VALUEDEF" for next 2 strings and thus desired matching achieved.
But the problem with above regex is that as soon as the value ends with any of the characters of "QUERY_answer", the regex doesn't match any value for the grouping. For instance, the below 2 strings doesn't match at all as the VALUESTU ends with "U" here :
ABC_FIXED_20220720_VALUESTU.csv
ABC_FIXED_20220720_VALUESTUQUERY_answer.csv
I tried to use Negative Lookahead:
ABC.*[0-9]{8}_(.*(?!QUERY_answer))(?:QUERY_answer)?.csv
but in this case the grouping-1 value is returned as "VALUESTU" for first string and "VALUESTUQUERY_answer" for second string, thus effectively making the 2 strings unmatched.
Any way to achieve the desired matching?
With your shown samples please try following regex.
^ABC_[^_]*_[0-9]+_(.*?)(?:QUERY_answer)?\.csv$
OR to match exact 8 digits try:
^ABC_[^_]*_[0-9]{8}_(.*?)(?:QUERY_answer)?\.csv$
Here is the online demo for above regex.
Explanation: Adding detailed explanation for above regex.
^ABC_[^_]*_ ##Matching from starting of value ABC followed by _ till next occurrence of _.
[0-9]+_ ##Matching continuous occurrences of digits followed by _ here.
(.*?) ##Creating one and only capturing group using lazy match which is opposite of greedy match.
(?:QUERY_answer)? ##In a non-capturing group matching QUERY_answer and keeping it optional.
\.csv$ ##Matching dot literal csv at the end of the value.
You need
ABC.*[0-9]{8}_(.*?)(?:QUERY_answer)?\.csv
See the regex demo.
Note
.*[^QUERY_answer] matches any zero or more chars other than line break chars as many as possible, and then any one char other than Q, U, E, etc., i.e. any char in the negated character class. This is replaced with .*?, to match any zero or more chars other than line break chars as few as possible.
(?:QUERY_answer)? - the group is made non-capturing to reduce grouping complexity.
\.csv - the . is escaped to match a literal dot.
A straight in poker is five cards in a row, for example 23456 or 89TJQ. With a "sorted" hand, the regex could be written as:
^(A2345|23456|34567|45678|56789|6789T|789TJ|89TJQ|9TJQK|TJQKA)$
It's a bit verbose but straightforward enough. However, would it be possible to generate a (sensible) regex if the hand was unordered? For example, if the hand was 52634 or JQ89T??
One possible way would be to use a ?=.*<item> lookahead (which would essentially be "unsorted"), for example:
^(?:
(?=.*A)(?=.*2)(?=.*3)(?=.*4)(?=.*5)
|(?=.*2)(?=.*3)(?=.*4)(?=.*5)(?=.*6)
|(?=.*3)(?=.*4)(?=.*5)(?=.*6)(?=.*7)
|(?=.*4)(?=.*5)(?=.*6)(?=.*7)(?=.*8)
|(?=.*5)(?=.*6)(?=.*7)(?=.*8)(?=.*9)
|(?=.*6)(?=.*7)(?=.*8)(?=.*9)(?=.*T)
|(?=.*7)(?=.*8)(?=.*9)(?=.*T)(?=.*J)
|(?=.*8)(?=.*9)(?=.*T)(?=.*J)(?=.*Q)
|(?=.*9)(?=.*T)(?=.*J)(?=.*Q)(?=.*K)
|(?=.*T)(?=.*J)(?=.*Q)(?=.*K)(?=.*A)
)
.{5}$
Are there other / better approaches to finding if a straight exists using regex only?
You can use the following regex:
See regex in use here
(?!.*(.).*\1)(?:[A2345]{5}|[23456]{5}|[34567]{5}|[45678]{5}|[56789]{5}|[6789T]{5}|[789TJ]{5}|[89TJQ]{5}|[9TJQK]{5}|[TJQKA]{5})
This works by first using a negative lookahead to ensure that the string doesn't contain any duplicates (?!.*(.).*\1). Then it matches 5 characters from any of the straight possibilities.
(?!.*(.).*\1)
#^^^ ^ negative lookahead ensuring what follows doesn't match
# ^^ match any character any number of times
# ^^^ capture a character into capture group #1
# ^^ match any character any number of times
# ^^ match the same text as most recently matched by the 1st capture group
Against JQQ89, it works as follows:
- .* matches J
- (.) captures Q
- .* matches nothing
- \1 tries to match Q (and succeeds)
- Negative lookahead has a match, so fail the match.
I am trying to work out a regex expression but struggle with conditionals. I have a list of 100s of URLs that look like this:
/name/something/details/55334
/name/page/1/2
/name/somethingdifferent/34523
/name/page/1
/name/something/553/1
Bottom line is that I want to remove everything when a number appears apart from a scenario where the last thing before the number is a word 'page'.
1. /name/something/details/
2. /name/page/1/2
3. /name/somethingdifferent/
4. /name/page/1
5. /name/something
I will be removing it with Google Analytics Content Grouping or potentially with DataStudio. I already removed /name/ so I have:
1. /something/details/55334
2. /page/1/2
3. /somethingdifferent/34523
4. /page/1
5. /something/553/1
but want to add another rule and remove the numbers so I get:
1. /something/details/
2. /page/1/2
3. /somethingdifferent/
4. /page/1
5. /something
have already tried:
\(?(?=(page\/[0-9]+))(\2)|(\/\d+)
following the syntax of:
(?(?=condition))(IF)|(ELSE)
but it highlights all numbers after text.
Thanks for your help.
sampak
Try ^(\/page.*|[^0-9]*), works with your example.
A Version incl. name: ^(page[\/\d]*|[^\d\s])*
One option might be to match not a whitespace or digit while not matching /page.
Then match a forward slash and 1+ digits followed by any char 0+ times to omit that from the result.
^((?:(?!\/page)[^\d\s])*\/)\d.*
In parts
^ Start of string
( Capture group 1
(?: Non capturing group
(?!\/page) Negative lookahead, assert what is directly to the right is not
[^\d\s] Match any char except a digit or whitespace char
)* Close non capturing group and repeat 0+ times
\/ Match /
) Close group 1
\d.* Match a digit followed by any char except a newline 0+ times
In the replacement use the first capturing group
Regex demo
If you also want to remove /name you could use:
^\/name((?:(?!\/page)[^\d\s])*\/)\d.*
Regex demo
For example, this is the regular expression
([a]{2,3})
This is the string
aaaa // 1 match "(aaa)a" but I want "(aa)(aa)"
aaaaa // 2 match "(aaa)(aa)"
aaaaaa // 2 match "(aaa)(aaa)"
However, if I change the regular expression
([a]{2,3}?)
Then the results are
aaaa // 2 match "(aa)(aa)"
aaaaa // 2 match "(aa)(aa)a" but I want "(aaa)(aa)"
aaaaaa // 3 match "(aa)(aa)(aa)" but I want "(aaa)(aaa)"
My question is that is it possible to use as few groups as possible to match as long string as possible?
How about something like this:
(a{3}(?!a(?:[^a]|$))|a{2})
This looks for either the character a three times (not followed by a single a and a different character) or the character a two times.
Breakdown:
( # Start of the capturing group.
a{3} # Matches the character 'a' exactly three times.
(?! # Start of a negative Lookahead.
a # Matches the character 'a' literally.
(?: # Start of the non-capturing group.
[^a] # Matches any character except for 'a'.
| # Alternation (OR).
$ # Asserts position at the end of the line/string.
) # End of the non-capturing group.
) # End of the negative Lookahead.
| # Alternation (OR).
a{2} # Matches the character 'a' exactly two times.
) # End of the capturing group.
Here's a demo.
Note that if you don't need the capturing group, you can actually use the whole match instead by converting the capturing group into a non-capturing one:
(?:a{3}(?!a(?:[^a]|$))|a{2})
Which would look like this.
Try this Regex:
^(?:(a{3})*|(a{2,3})*)$
Click for Demo
Explanation:
^ - asserts the start of the line
(?:(a{3})*|(a{2,3})*) - a non-capturing group containing 2 sub-sequences separated by OR operator
(a{3})* - The first subsequence tries to match 3 occurrences of a. The * at the end allows this subsequence to match 0 or 3 or 6 or 9.... occurrences of a before the end of the line
| - OR
(a{2,3})* - matches 2 to 3 occurrences of a, as many as possible. The * at the end would repeat it 0+ times before the end of the line
-$ - asserts the end of the line
Try this short regex:
a{2,3}(?!a([^a]|$))
Demo
How it's made:
I started with this simple regex: a{2}a?. It looks for 2 consecutive a's that may be followed by another a. If the 2 a's are followed by another a, it matches all three a's.
This worked for most cases:
However, it failed in cases like:
So now, I knew I had to modify my regex in such a way that it would match the third a only if the third a is not followed by a([^a]|$). So now, my regex looked like a{2}a?(?!a([^a]|$)), and it worked for all cases. Then I just simplified it to a{2,3}(?!a([^a]|$)).
That's it.
EDIT
If you want the capturing behavior, then add parenthesis around the regex, like:
(a{2,3}(?!a([^a]|$)))
I need to match these values:
(First approach to a regex that roughly does what I want)
\d+([.,]\d{3})*[.,]\d{2}
like
24,56
24.56
1.234,56
1,234.56
1234,56
1234.56
but I need to not match
1.234.56
1,234,56
So somehow I need to check the last occurrence of "." or "," to not be the same as the previous "." or ",".
Background: Amounts shall be matched in English and German format with (optional) 1000-Separators.
But even with help of regex101 I completely fail at coming up with a correctly working look-behind. Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
UPDATE
Based on the answers I got so far, I came up with this (demo):
\d{1,3}(?:([\.,'])?\d{3})*(?!\1)[\.,\s]\d{2}
But it matches for example 1234.567,23 which is not desirable.
You may capture the digit grouping symbol and use a negative lookahead with a backreference to restrict the decimal separator:
^(?:\d+|\d{1,3}(?:([.,])\d{3})*)(?!\1)[.,]\d{2}$
^ ^ ^^^^^
See the regex demo
Group 1 will contain the last value of the digit grouping symbol and (?!\1)[.,] will match the other symbol.
Details:
^ - start of string
(?:\d+|\d{1,3}(?:([.,])\d{3})*) - either of the two alternatives:
\d+ - 1+ digits
| - or
\d{1,3} - 1 to 3 digits,
(?:([.,])\d{3})* - zero or more sequences of:
([.,]) - Group 1 capturing . or ,
\d{3} - 3 digits
(?!\1)[.,] - a . or , but not equal to what was last captured with ([.,]) pattern above
\d{2} - 2 digits
$ - end of string.
You can use
^\d+(([.,])\d{3})*(?!\2)[.,]\d{2}$
live demo