RegEx Pattern in VB for Multiline Matches - regex

Question

I already made it to get the information in single line. I have a list of information like:
1 1 838028476391 4 23 36 P 1/820-01 *
2 1 838028476490 4 23 36 P 1/820-17 *
3 1 838028474271 4 23 36 P 1/820-21 *
4 1 838028476292 4 23 36 P 1/820-21 *
5 1 838028474263 4 23 36 P 1/820-23 *
6 1 838028473802 4 23 36 P 1/820-21 *
And I need the 12 digits numbers from every line. I tried this code:
Dim re As String
Dim re18 As String
re18 = "(\d{12})"
Dim r3 As New RegExp
r3.Pattern = re18
r3.IgnoreCase = True
r3.MultiLine = True
If r3.Test(Body) Then
Dim m3 As MatchCollection
Set m3 = r3.Execute(Body)
If m3.Item(0).SubMatches.Count > 0 Then
Dim number
For j = 1 To m3.Count
Set number = m3.Item(j - 1)
MsgBox ("Number: " + number)
Next
End If
End If
I only get the first match - even if I debug the makro and view m3 in the watch - there is only 1 match. I also tried to use the quantifiers * or + after \d{12}
How do I get this RegEx working?
And regarding RegEx I have another question: If I want to match something AFTER a special word i would put the word in the pattern at the beginning and behind that the numbers or whatever I want. If I execute this regex - do I get the information or match INCLUDING the word I put at the beginning of my pattern?!
Like: "BUS \d{12}" and I only want the numbers as a result but know that BUS stands before the numbers...

Answer 1

You need to use the Global option, not Multiline. Multiline changes the behavior the anchors (^ and $) so they match the beginning and end of each line, not just the beginning and end of the whole text. Global is the option that tells it to find all the matches, not just the first one.
You probably don't need to use the SubMatches property either. Your regex has only the one capturing group, which captures the whole match. That means m3.SubMatches will only contain one Item, Item(0), and it will be exactly the same as m3.Item(0). (Notice that the index of the first group is 0, not 1 as you would expect from working with other regex tools.)
Your second question is where the SubMatches property comes in. If you wanted to find every 12-digit number that follows the word "BUS" you would use a regex like this:
BUS\s*(\d{12})
...and you would retrieve the number from each match like this:
Set m3 = r3.Execute(Body)
For Each myMatch in m3
MsgBox("Number: " + m3.SubMatches(0).Value)
Next
See this page for more info.