I have a list of fields named flavx(other text) that go 1 through 10.
For example, I might have:
flav2PGPct
I need to turn it to
flav12PGPct
I need to replaced 1 through 10 with 11 through 20 using VB.NET's Replace function with Regex, but I can't get it working right.
Can anyone help?
Here's what I've tried:
(\.)flav*[1-9]
I have no idea what to place in the replacement box...
Use this regex for search: (flav)(\d\w*) and this one for replace: ${1}1$2.
I'd use 2 regex runs to obtain the desired result because it is not possible to use a replacement literal with alternatives.
The first regex would replace 10 to 20 and the second will handle 1 to 9 digits:
Dim rx1to9 As Regex = New Regex("(?<=\D|^)[1-9](?=\D|$)") '1 - 9
Dim rx10 As Regex = New Regex("(?<=\D|^)10(?=\D|$)") '10
Dim str As String = "flav2PG10Pct101"
Dim result = rx10.Replace(str, "20")
result = rx1to9.Replace(result, "1$&")
Console.WriteLine(result)
See IDEONE demo (output is flav12PG20Pct101)
Regex explanation:
(?<=\D|^) - A positive look-behind that makes sure there is no digit (\D) or start of string (^) before...
[1-9] - a single digit from 1 to 9 (or, in the second regex, 10 matching literal 10)
(?=\D|$) - A positive look-ahead that makes sure there is no digit (\D) or the end of string ($) after the digit.
If you must check if flav is present in the string, you may use a bit different look-behind: (?<=flav\D*|^), or - if spaces should not occur between flav and the digit: (?<=flav[^\d\s]*|^).
Regexes work best with strings rather than numbers, so an easy way is to use a regex to get the parts of the string you want to adjust and then concatenate the calculated part in a string:
Option Strict On
Option Infer On
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Module Module1
Sub Main()
Dim re As New Regex("^flav([0-9]+)(.*)$")
Dim s = "flav1PGPct"
Dim t = ""
Dim m = re.Match(s)
If m.Success Then
t = CStr(Integer.Parse(m.Groups(1).Value) + 10)
t = "flav" & t & m.Groups(2).Value
End If
Console.WriteLine(t)
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
End Module
Related
I need a regular expression to match page numbers as found in common programs.
These usually take the form 1-5,3,5,1-9 for example.
I have a regular expression (\d+-\d+)?,(\d+-\d+?)* which I need help to refine.
As can be seen here regex101 I am matching commas and missing numbers entirely.
What I need is to match 1-5 as group 1, 3 as group 2, 5 as group 3 and 1-9 as group 4 without matching any commas.
Any help is appreciated. I will be using this in VBA.
This worked for me - am I missing something?
Sub Pages()
Dim re As Object, allMatches, m, rv, sep, c As Range, i As Long
Set re = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
re.Pattern = "(\d+(-\d+)?)"
re.ignorecase = True
re.MultiLine = True
re.Global = True
For Each c In Range("B5:B20").Cells 'for example
c.Offset(0, 1).Resize(1, 10).ClearContents 'clear output cells
i = 0
If re.test(c.Value) Then
Set allMatches = re.Execute(c.Value)
For Each m In allMatches
i = i + 1
c.Offset(0, i).Value = m
Next m
End If
Next c
End Sub
If I recall correctly, capturing a dynamic number of groups will not work. You can pre-specify the format / number of groups to be matched, or you can catch the repeated groups as one and split them afterwards.
If you know the format, just do
(\d+(?:-\d+)?)(?:,)(\d+(?:-\d+)?)(?:,)(\d+(?:-\d+)?)(?:,)(\d+(?:-\d+)?)
which of course is not very neat.
If you want the flexible structure, match the first group and all the rest as a second and then split the latter by the delimiter ',' in whichever language.
(\d+(?:-\d+)?)((?:(?:,)(\d+(?:-\d+)?))*)
You need to make the -\d+ part optional, since you don't always have ranges. And the comma between each range should be part of the second group with the * quantifier, so you can match a single range with no comma after it.
\d+(-\d+)?(,\d+(-\d+)?)*
This will match the string that contains all the ranges. To get an array of individual ranges without the commas, do a second match in this string:
\d+(-\d+)?
Use the VBA function for getting an array of all matches of a regexp (sorry, I don't know VBA, so can't provide the specific syntax).
I have several strings, e.g.
(3)_(9)--(11).(FT-2)
(10)--(20).(10)/test--(99)
I am trying Regex.Match(here I do no know) to get a list like this:
First sample:
3
_
9
--
11
.
FT-1
Second Sample:
10
--
20
.
10
/test--
99
So there are several numbers in brackets and any text between them.
Can anyone help me doing this in vb.net? A given string returns this list?
One option is to use the Split method of [String]
"(3)_(9)--(11).(FT-2)".Split('()')
Another option is to match everything excluding ( and )
As regex, this would do [^()]+
Breakdown
"[^()]" ' Match any single character NOT present in the list “()”
"+" ' Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
You can use following block of code to extract all matches
Try
Dim RegexObj As New Regex("[^()]+", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
Dim MatchResults As Match = RegexObj.Match(SubjectString)
While MatchResults.Success
' matched text: MatchResults.Value
' match start: MatchResults.Index
' match length: MatchResults.Length
MatchResults = MatchResults.NextMatch()
End While
Catch ex As ArgumentException
'Syntax error in the regular expression
End Try
This should work:
Dim input As String = "(3)_(9)--(11).(FT-2)"
Dim searchPattern As String = "\((?<keep>[^)]+)\)|(?<=\))(?<keep>[^()]+)"
Dim replacementPattern As String = "${keep}" + Environment.NewLine
Dim output As String = RegEx.Replace(input, searchPattern, replacementPattern)
The simplest way is to use Regex.Split (formulated as a little console test):
Dim input = {"(3)_(9)--(11).(FT-2)", "(10)--(20).(10)/test--(99)"}
For Each s As String In input
Dim parts = Regex.Split(s, "\(|\)")
Console.WriteLine($"Input = {s}")
For Each p As String In parts
Console.WriteLine(p)
Next
Next
Console.ReadKey()
So basically we have a one-liner for the regex part.
The regular expression \(|\) means: split at ( or ) where the braces are escaped with \ because of their special meaning within regex.
The slightly shorter regex [()] where the desired characters are enclosed in [] would produce the same result.
I have some user input that I want to validate for correctness. The user should input 1 or more sets of characters, separated by commas.
So these are valid input
COM1
COM1,COM2,1234
these are invalid
COM -- only 3 characters
COM1,123 -- one set is only 3 characters
COM1.1234,abcd -- a dot separator not comma
I googled for a regex pattern to this and found a possible pattern that tested for a recurring instance of any 3 characters, and I modified like so
/^(.{4,}).*\1$/
but this is not finding matches.
I can manage the last comma that may or may not be there before passing to the test so that it is always there.
Preferably, I would like to test for letters (any case) and numbers only, but I can live with any characters.
I know I could easily do this in straight VBA splitting the input on a comma delimiter and looping through each character of each array element, but regex seems more efficient, and I will have more cases than have slightly different patterns, so parameterising the regex for that would be better design.
TIA
I believe this does what you want:
^([A-Z|a-z|0-9]{4},)*[A-Z|a-z|0-9]{4}$
It's a line beginning followed by zero or more groups of four letters or numbers ending with a comma, followed by one group of four letters or number followed by an end-of-line.
You can play around with it here: https://regex101.com/r/Hdv65h/1
The regular expression
"^[\w]{4}(,[\w]{4})*$"
should work.
You can try this to see whether it works for all your cases using the following function. Assuming your test strings are in cells A1 thru A5 on the spreadsheet:
Sub findPattern()
Dim regEx As New RegExp
regEx.Global = True
regEx.IgnoreCase = True
regEx.Pattern = "^[\w]{4}(,[\w]{4})*$"
Dim i As Integer
Dim val As String
For i = 1 To 5:
val = Trim(Cells(i, 1).Value)
Set mat = regEx.Execute(val)
If mat.Count = 0 Then
MsgBox ("No match found for " & val)
Else
MsgBox ("Match found for " & val)
End If
Next
End Sub
[15-]
[41-(32)]
[48-(45)]
[70-15]
[40-(64)]
[(128)-42]
[(128)-56]
I have these values for which I want to extract the value not in curled brackets. If there is more than one, then add them together.
What is the regular expression to do this?
So the solution would look like this:
[15-] -> 15
[41-(32)] -> 41
[48-(45)] -> 48
[70-15] -> 85
[40-(64)] -> 40
[(128)-42] -> 42
[(128)-56] -> 56
You would be over complicating if you go for a regex approach (in this case, at least), also, regular expressions does not support mathematical operations, as pointed out by #richardtallent.
You can use an approach as shown here to extract a substring which omits the initial and final square brackets, and then, use the Split (as shown here) and split the string in two using the dash sign. Lastly, use the Instr function (as shown here) to see if any of the substrings that the split yielded contains a bracket.
If any of the substrings contain a bracket, then, they are omitted from the addition, or they are added up if otherwise.
Regular expressions does not support performing math on the terms. You can loop through the groups that are matched and perform the math outside of Regex.
Here's the pattern to extract any number within the square brackets that are not in cury brackets:
\[
(?:(?:\d+|\([^\)]*\))-)*
(\d+)
(?:-[^\]]*)*
\]
Each number will be returned in $1.
This works by looking for a number that is prefixed by any number of "words" separated by dashes, where the "words" are either numbers themselves or parenthesized strings, and followed by, optionally, a dash and some other stuff before hitting the end brace.
If VBA's RegEx doesn't support uncaptured groups (?:), remove all of the ?:'s and your captured numbers will be in $3 instead.
A simpler pattern also works:
\[
(?:[^\]]*-)*
(\d+)
(?:-[^\]]*)*
\]
This simply looks for numbers delimited by dashes and allowing for the number to be at the beginning or end.
Private Sub regEx()
Dim RegexObj As New VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp
RegexObj.Pattern = "\[(\(?[0-9]*?\)?)-(\(?[0-9]*?\)?)\]"
Dim str As String
str = "[15-]"
Dim Match As Object
Set Match = RegexObj.Execute(str)
Dim result As Integer
Dim value1 As Integer
Dim value2 As Integer
If Not InStr(1, Match.Item(0).submatches.Item(0), "(", 1) Then
value1 = Match.Item(0).submatches.Item(0)
End If
If Not InStr(1, Match.Item(0).submatches.Item(1), "(", 1) And Not Match.Item(0).submatches.Item(1) = "" Then
value2 = Match.Item(0).submatches.Item(1)
End If
result = value1 + value2
MsgBox (result)
End Sub
Fill [15-] with the other strings.
Ok! It's been 6 years and 6 months since the question was posted. Still, for anyone looking for something like that maybe now or in the future...
Step 1:
Trim Leading and Trailing Spaces, if any
Step 2:
Find/Search:
\]|\[|\(.*\)
Replace With:
<Leave this field Empty>
Step 3:
Trim Leading and Trailing Spaces, if any
Step 4:
Find/Search:
^-|-$
Replace With:
<Leave this field Empty>
Step 5:
Find/Search:
-
Replace With:
\+
Excel returns a reference of the form
=Sheet1!R14C1R22C71junk
("junk" won't normally be there, but I want to be sure that there's no extraneous text.)
I would like to 'split' this into a VB array, where
a(0)="Sheet1"
a(1)="14"
a(2)="1"
a(3)="22"
a(4)="71"
a(5)="junk"
I'm sure it can be done easily with a regular expression, but I just can't get the hang of it.
Is there a kind soul who could help me?
Thanks
=([^!]+)!R(\d+)C(\d+)R(\d+)C(\d+)(.*)
should work.
[^!]+ matches a sequence of non-exclamation-point characters.
\d+ matches a sequence of digits.
.* matches anything.
So, in VB.NET:
Dim a As Match
a = Regex.Match(SubjectString, "=([^!]+)!R(\d+)C(\d+)R(\d+)C(\d+)(.*)")
If a.Success Then
' matched text: a.Value
' backreference n text: a.Groups(n).Value
Else
' Match attempt failed
End If
A straightforward String.Split would work, provided the "junk" text wasn't there:
Dim input As String = "=Sheet1!R14C1R22C71"
Dim result = input.Split(New Char() { "="c, "!"c, "R"c, "C"c }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
For Each item As String In result
Console.WriteLine(item)
Next
The regex gets a little tricky since you will need to go through the Groups and Captures of the nested portions to get the proper order.
EDIT: here's my regex solution. It accepts multiple occurrences of R's and C's.
Dim input As String = "=Sheet1!R14C1R22C71junk"
Dim pattern As String = "=(?<Sheet>Sheet\d+)!(?:R(?<R>\d+)C(?<C>\d+))+"
Dim m As Match = Regex.Match(input, pattern)
If m.Success Then
Console.WriteLine(m.Groups("Sheet").Value)
For i = 0 To m.Groups("R").Captures.Count - 1
Console.WriteLine(m.Groups("R").Captures(i).Value)
Console.WriteLine(m.Groups("C").Captures(i).Value)
Next
End If
Pattern explanation:
"=(?Sheet\d+)" : matches an = sign followed by "Sheet" and digits. Uses named group of "Sheet"
"!(?:R(?\d+)C(?\d+))+" : matches the exclamation mark followed by at least one occurrence of the *R*xx*C*xx portion of the text. Named groups of "R" and "C" are used.
"(?:...)+" : this portion from the above portion matches but does not capture the inner pattern (i.e., the R/C part). This is to avoid unnecessarily capturing them while we are actually capturing them with the named groups.
More general regexes for R1C1 style:
^=(?:(?<Sheet>[^!]+)!)?(?:R((?<RAbs>\d+)|(?<RRel>\[-?\d+\]))C((?<CAbs>\d+)|(?<CRel>\[-?\d+\]))){1,2}$
And A1 style:
^=(?:(?<Sheet>[^!]+)!)?(?:(?<Col1>\$?[a-z]+)(?<Row1>\$?\d+))(?:\:(?<Col2>\$?[a-z]+)(?<Row2>\$?\d+))?$
It doesn't match external references like =[Book1]Sheet1!A1 though.