From MatchCollection to Array or Pair of Values - regex

Is there a way to put regex captures directly into an array without the intervening MatchCollection?
I want something like: Set myArray = myRegEx.Execute(myString)(0).SubMatches
Or at a minimum, if I knew the number of captures that I could "tie" the return values: (myFirst, mySecond) = myRegEx.Execute(myString)(0).SubMatches
I know that use of SubMatches is made up, I'm just trying to find a way to accomplish the circumvention of the intervening MatchCollection.

OK, maybe this will get you started.
From Outlook macro to Excel macro is not something I would do. Instead, I would recommend binding one application to the other and doing whatever you need to do with both object model references exposed to the VBProject.
But in any case you can do it the way you describe, and this should be an example.
This example assumes that Excel is already open, and further that the Workbook which contains the macro is also open in that instance of Excel. In Excel I create a simple procedure which accepts a generic Object argument. I do this to avoid needing the explicit reference tot he Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions library.
This way, you have a macro in Excel which accepts (requires, actually) an object variable. In this case it is going to be a SubMatches object. (Make sure to change "Book9" to the name of your workbook, or modify as needed to allow user to select/open a workbook, etc.)
Sub excelmacro(SM As Object)
MsgBox SM.Count & " submatches"
End Sub
Now, I have a very simple Outlook procedure to test this and verify it works. In this case there will be no submatches, so the Excel procedure above will display a messagebox 0 submatches.
Sub test_to_Excel()
'### Requires reference to Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.0 ###
Dim re As New RegExp
Dim mySubmatches As SubMatches
Dim xl As Object 'Excel.Application
Dim wb As Object 'Excel.Workbook
With re
.Global = True
.Pattern = "asd"
'## Now get a handle on the particular indexed match.submatches()
Set mySubmatches = .Execute("asdfkjasdfj; asdl asdfklwedrewn adg")(1).SubMatches
End With
'## Now we can send to Excel procedure:
'## Assumes Excel is already running and the file which contains the macro
' is already open
Set xl = GetObject(, "Excel.Application")
Set wb = xl.Workbooks("Book9")
'## This tells the Excel application to run a named procedure
' and passes the variable argument(s) to that procedure
xl.Application.Run "excelmacro", mySubmatches
End Sub

Related

Using Regex to parse ASCII protocol

I'm working on a simple application that interacts with a device via an Telnet session with a ASCII based protocol.
There will be a lot of interaction with the device so i'm looking for a fast way to parse the incoming string. Now the manufacturer was so kind to release there Regex scheme. But since Regex is very new to me i don't understand how to retrieve the value. I know how to match but when i match i want to get the value from it.
Regex scheme
NameAndValue := [A-Z_]+:("(\\.|[^"\\])*"|(\\.|[^\s"\\])*)
Value := ("(\\.|[^"\\])*"|(\\.|[^\s"\\])*)
ValueUnquoted := (\\.|[^\s"\\])*
ValueQuoted := "(\\.|[^"\\])*"
CharQuoted := (\\.|[^"\\])
CharUnquoted := (\\.|[^\s"\\])
EscapedChar := \\.
CharCommon := [^\s"\\]
CharEscape := \\
CharQuote := "
CharSpace := \s
Example of a response
CMD1:"string value" CMD2:1 CMD3:"string value again" <LF> or <CR>+<LF>
I've read a lot of documentation and tried lot's of approaches, however someone could point me out in the right direct.
I did however wrote a simple parser that finds the index positions of commands and there values and then uses a substring to retrieve only the value. It works, but i prefer an "nicer" way with the power of Regex.
--------- EDIT 18-10-2017 ---------
Request of #VBobCat to provide a more detailed "parsing" requirement.
So let's say i have a object with the properties Foo and Bar and we have a second object with the properties cat and dog
Now when i receive the string via telnet i have to parse it to one of those objects. Lucky the string always begins with what it holds. So lets say x for object with Foo and Bar and animal for object with cat and dog.
Now with the provided Regex i want to parse the values in the string to the properties of the object. Something like:
X CMD1_Foo:1 CMD2_Bar:"string value" <LF> or <CR>+<LF>
Object X.Foo = CMD1_Foo.value
Object X.Bar = CMD2_Bar.value
OR
Animal CMD1_Cat:"Miauw" CMD2_Dog:"woef" <LF> or <CR>+<LF>
Object X.Cat = CMD1_Cat.value
Object X.Dog = CMD2_Dog.value
If all your samples are consistent with your example, this could work:
Function ParseTelnet(input As String) As DataTable
Dim retTable As New DataTable
retTable.Columns.Add("command", GetType(String))
retTable.Columns.Add("value", GetType(String))
Dim entries = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split(input, "\s+(?=\w+:)")
Dim pairs = entries.Select(
Function(entry) If(entry, "").Trim(Chr(9), Chr(10), Chr(13), Chr(32)).Split({":"c}, 2)).Where(
Function(pair) pair.Count = 2)
For Each pair In pairs
If pair(1).StartsWith("""") AndAlso pair(1).EndsWith("""") Then
retTable.Rows.Add(pair(0), pair(1).Substring(1, pair(1).Length - 2))
Else
retTable.Rows.Add(pair(0), pair(1))
End If
Next
Return retTable
End Function

How to insert a new line after each occurrence of a particular format in a text field

I have a system that I can output a spreadsheet from. I then take this outputted spreadsheet and import it into MS Access. There, I run some basic update queries before merging the final result into a SharePoint 2013 Linked List.
The spreadsheet I output has an unfortunate Long Text field which has some comments in it, which are vital. On the system that hosts the spreadsheet, these comments are nicely formatted. When the spreadsheet it output though, the field turns into a long, very unpretty string like so:
09:00 on 01/03/2017, Firstname Surname. :- Have responded to request for more information. 15:12 on 15/02/2017, Firstname Surname. :- Need more information to progress request. 17:09 on 09/02/2017, Firstname Surname. :- Have placed request.
What I would like to do is run a query (either in MS Access or MS Excel) which can scan this field, detect occurrences of "##:## on ##/##/####, Firstname Surname. :-" and then automatically insert a line break before them, so this text is more neatly formatted. It would obviously skip the first occurrence of this format, as otherwise it would enter a new line at the start of the field. Ideal end result would be:
09:00 on 01/03/2017, Firstname Surname. :- Have responded to request
for more information.
15:12 on 15/02/2017, Firstname Surname. :- Need more information to progress request.
17:09 on 09/02/2017, Firstname Surname. :- Have placed request.
To be honest, I haven't tried much myself so far, as I really don't know where to start. I don't know if this can be done without regular expressions, or within a simple query versus VBA code.
I did start building a regular expression, like so:
[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}\s[o][n]\s[0-9]{2}\/[0-9]{2}\/[0-9]{4}\,\s
But this looks a little ridiculous and I'm fairly certain I'm going about it in a very unnecessary way. From what I can see from the text, detecting the next occurrence of "##:## on ##/##/####" should be enough. If I take a new line after this, that will suffice.
You have your RegExp pattern, now you need to create a function to append found items with your extra delimiter.
look at this function. It takes, your long string and finds your date-stamp using your pattern and appends with your delimiter.
Ideally, i would run each line twice and add delimiters after each column so you have a string like,
datestamp;firstname lastname;comment
you can then use arr = vba.split(text, ";") to get your data into an array and use it as
date-stamp = arr(0)
name = arr(1)
comment = arr(2)
Public Function FN_REGEX_REPLACE(iText As String, iPattern As String, iDelimiter As String) As String
Dim objRegex As Object
Dim allmatches As Variant
Dim I As Long
On Error GoTo FN_REGEX_REPLACE_Error
Set objRegex = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
With objRegex
.Multiline = True
.Global = True
.IgnoreCase = True
.Pattern = iPattern
If .test(iText) Then
Set allmatches = .Execute(iText)
If allmatches.count > 0 Then
For I = 1 To allmatches.count - 1 ' for i = 0 to count will start from first match
iText = VBA.Replace(iText, allmatches.item(I), iDelimiter & allmatches.item(I))
Next I
End If
End If
End With
FN_REGEX_REPLACE = Trim(iText)
Set objRegex = Nothing
On Error GoTo 0
Exit Function
FN_REGEX_REPLACE_Error:
MsgBox Err.description
End Function
use above function as
mPattern = "[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}\s[o][n]\s[0-9]{2}\/[0-9]{2}\/[0-9]{4}\,"
replacedText = FN_REGEX_REPLACE(originalText,mPattern,vbnewline)
Excel uses LF for linebreaks, Access uses CRLF.
So it should suffice to run a simple replacement query:
UPDATE myTable
SET LongTextField = Replace([LongTextField], Chr(10), Chr(13) & Chr(10))
WHERE <...>
You need to make sure that this runs only once on newly imported records, not repeatedly on all records.

Find-Replace text contained in textboxes and tables

I'm hoping I can get come help from a programmer.
What I want to do is to translate a word report generated by a software, so I turned to macros. I already have a word file containing the original word/phrases and the translated ones.
I 'stole' the code to translate from some forum online, which works great with normal text. My problem is that the text of the report I want to translate is within various "text boxes" and "tables".
I was able to manually remove the tables, but keep the text. This totally ruined the formatting, but I can deal with that latter.
Now, unfortunately I cannot do the same with textboxes. There is no 'delete, but keep the text" function for textboxes.
I can send you the macro code, the original report automatically generated by the software and the file to get all translated words from.
I really appreciate your time.
Ok. This is code that translates normal text.
Sub Translate()
Dim oChanges As Document, oDoc As Document
Dim oTable As Table
Dim oRng As Range
Dim rFindText As Range, rReplacement As Range
Dim i As Long
Dim sFname As String
'Change the path in the line below to reflect the path of the table document
sFname = "C:\Users\user\Desktop\Dictionary.doc"
Set oDoc = ActiveDocument
Set oChanges = Documents.Open(FileName:=sFname, Visible:=False)
Set oTable = oChanges.Tables(1)
For i = 1 To oTable.Rows.Count
Set oRng = oDoc.Range
Set rFindText = oTable.Cell(i, 1).Range
rFindText.End = rFindText.End - 1
Set rReplacement = oTable.Cell(i, 2).Range
rReplacement.End = rReplacement.End - 1
With oRng.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
Do While .Execute(findText:=rFindText, _
MatchWholeWord:=True, _
MatchWildcards:=False, _
Forward:=True, _
Wrap:=wdFindContinue) = True
oRng.Text = rReplacement
Loop
End With
Next i
oChanges.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges
End Sub
I'm guessing you'd need to see the format of the document that is being translated, which contains all the tables and text boxes. But it is too large and I'm not sure if I can send it as an attachment here somehow. (sorry, its my first time on this forum). Any advise?
Thanks a lot
JD

How to validate data insertions and restrict them in Excel cells

I have an Asp.Net web application to manage certain tables in the database. I'm using Grid to insert, update the Database. In addition to this, the requirement is that, user should be able to insert into database from Excel(by uploading the Excel, sort of like Import from Excel into Database).
So, I'm reusing the code for insertions(which i used for Insert in Grid) for each row in the Excel.
And I have Regular expression validators for certain fieldsin Grid in Asp.Net as follows:
Id: can be combination of numbers,alphabets. Regex is:"^[a-zA-Z0-9_]{1,50}$"
Formula: can have arithmetic operators and dot. Regex is: "^[ A-Za-z0-9%._(/*+)-]*$"
Sort Order: must be nuber with some max size Regex is: "^[0-9]{1,5}$"
Weight: real number with max size Regex is : "^[0-9]+(?:\.\d{1,2})?$"
Domain UserName: username with domain name Regex is: "^[a-zA-Z\\._]{1,200}$"
I wanted to have this validators in the Excel cells too. I've searched if Excel allows Regular expressions and found that it should be done through vba or any third party tool. I don't know Vb.net and neither want to use any external tool.
And i don't know much about Excel too. Is there any way to do the validations. If so, will there be some formats for setting formula for regex.
Can anyone suggest me how to do this. Thanks In Advance.
You can use the Regex engine that comes with VBScript:
Dim User_ID As String
User_ID = InputBox("Enter User ID:")
With CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
.Global = True
.Pattern = "^[\w]{1,50}$"
If .Test(User_ID) Then '// Check pattern matches User_ID string
Range("B" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Offset(1, 0).Value = User_ID
Else
MsgBox("Invalid ID, please try again!")
End If
End With
I got the answer. I've wrote worksheet_Change event with if else
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If Not Target.Row = 1 Then Exit Sub '// Only look at header row
Application.EnableEvents = False '// Disable events, prevent infinite loop.
If Cells(1, Target.Column).Value = "Attribute_Id" Then
Target.Value = AttributeId(Target.Value)
ElseIf Cells(1, Target.Column).Value = "Attribute_Name" Then
Target.Value = AttributeName(Target.Value)
End If
Application.EnableEvents = True '// Turn Events back on
End Sub
And these are the functions:
Function AttributeId(Attribute_Id As String) As String
With CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
.Global = True
.Pattern = "^[a-zA-Z0-9_]{1,50}$"
.IgnoreCase = True
If Not .Test(Attribute_Id) Then
MsgBox ("Invalid Attribute ID, please try again!")
Exit Function
End If
End With
AttributeId = Attribute_Id
End Function
And
Function AttributeName(Attribute_Name As String) As String
If Attribute_Name = "" Then MsgBox ("Attribute Name is a Mandatory field!")
AttributeName = Attribute_Name
End Function
No need to bind the functions to the cells.
-- Thank you #S O for the help..

Regular Expression Rules in Outlook 2007?

Is it possible to create rules in Outlook 2007 based on a regex string?
I'm trying to add a filter for messages containing a string such as: 4000-10, a four digit number followed by a dash and then a two digit number, which can be anything from 0000-00 to 9999-99.
I was using this as a regex: \b[0-9]{4}\-[0-9]{2}\b but the filter isn't working. I've tried a few other modifications as well with no luck. I wasn't able to find anything concrete online about whether Outlook even supports entering regexes into a rule, though, so I figured I would ask here in case I'm wasting my time.
EDIT: Thanks to Chris's comment below, I was able to implement this filter via a macro. I thought I would share my code below in case it is able to help anyone else:
Sub JobNumberFilter(Message As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim MatchesSubject, MatchesBody
Dim RegEx As New RegExp
'e.g. 1000-10'
RegEx.Pattern = "([0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2})"
'Check for pattern in subject and body'
If (RegEx.Test(Message.Subject) Or RegEx.Test(Message.Body)) Then
Set MatchesSubject = RegEx.Execute(Message.Subject)
Set MatchesBody = RegEx.Execute(Message.Body)
If Not (MatchesSubject Is Nothing And MatchesBody Is Nothing) Then
'Assign "Job Number" category'
Message.Categories = "Job Number"
Message.Save
End If
End If
End Sub
I do not know if a regex can be used directly in a rule, but you can have a rule trigger a script and the script can use regexes. I hate Outlook.
First, you have to open the script editor via Tools - Macro - Open Visual Basic Editor (Alt-F11 is the shortcut).
The editor will open. It should contain a project outline in a small panel in the top-left corner. The project will be listed as VBAProject.OTM. Expand this item to reveal Microsoft Office Outlook Objects. Expand that to reveal ThisOutlookSession. Double-click ThisOutlookSession to open the code editing pane (which will probably be blank).
Next select Tools menu | References and enable the RegExp references called something like "Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5"
You can now create a subroutine to perform your filtering action. Note that a subroutine called by a rule must have a single parameter of type Outlook.MailItem. For example:
' note that Stack Overflow's syntax highlighting doesn't understand VBScript's
' comment character (the single quote) - it treats it as a string delimiter. To
' make the code appear correctly, each comment must be closed with another single
' quote so that the syntax highlighter will stop coloring everything as a string.'
Public Enum Actions
ACT_DELIVER = 0
ACT_DELETE = 1
ACT_QUARANTINE = 2
End Enum
Sub MyNiftyFilter(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim Matches, Match
Dim RegEx As New RegExp
RegEx.IgnoreCase = True
' assume mail is good'
Dim Message As String: Message = ""
Dim Action As Actions: Action = ACT_DELIVER
' SPAM TEST: Illegal word in subject'
RegEx.Pattern = "(v\|agra|erection|penis|boner|pharmacy|painkiller|vicodin|valium|adderol|sex med|pills|pilules|viagra|cialis|levitra|rolex|diploma)"
If Action = ACT_DELIVER Then
If RegEx.Test(Item.Subject) Then
Action = ACT_QUARANTINE
Set Matches = RegEx.Execute(Item.Subject)
Message = "SPAM: Subject contains restricted word(s): " & JoinMatches(Matches, ",")
End If
End If
' other tests'
Select Case Action
Case Actions.ACT_QUARANTINE
Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Set ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Dim junk As Outlook.Folder
Set junk = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderJunk)
Item.Subject = "SPAM: " & Item.Subject
If Item.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML Then
Item.HTMLBody = "<h2>" & Message & "</h2>" & Item.HTMLBody
Else
Item.Body = Message & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & Item.Body
End If
Item.Save
Item.Move junk
Case Actions.ACT_DELETE
' similar to above, but grab Deleted Items folder as destination of move'
Case Actions.ACT_DELIVER
' do nothing'
End Select
End Sub
Private Function JoinMatches(Matches, Delimeter)
Dim RVal: RVal = ""
For Each Match In Matches
If Len(RVal) <> 0 Then
RVal = RVal & ", " & Match.Value
Else
RVal = RVal & Match.Value
End If
Next
JoinMatches = RVal
End Function
Next, you have to create a rule (Tools - Rules and Alerts) to trigger this script. Click the New Rule button on the dialog to launch the wizard. Select a template for the rule. Choose the "Check messages when they arrive" template from the "Start from a blank rule" category. Click Next.
Choose the "On this machine only" condition (intuitive isn't it?) and click next.
Choose the "run a script" option. At the bottom of the wizard where it shows your new rule, it should read:
Apply this rule after the message arrives
on this machine only
run a script
The phrase "a script" is a clickable link. Click it and Outlook will display a dialog that should list the subroutine you created earlier. Select your subroutine and click the OK button.
You can click Next to add exceptions to the rule or click Finish if you have no exceptions.
Now, as though that process was not convoluted enough, this rule will deactivate every time you stop and restart Outlook unless you sign the script with a code signing key.
If you don't already have a code signing key, you can create one with OpenSSL.
Did I mention that I hate Outlook?
Microsoft Outlook does not support regular expressions. You can perform wildcard searches, although for some inexplicable reason the wildcard character is %, not *.