I am looking to do a 2-step regular expression look-up in Perl, I have text that looks like this:
here is some text 9337 more text AA 2214 and some 1190 more BB stuff 8790 words
I also have a hash with the following values:
%my_hash = ( 9337 => 'AA', 2214 => 'BB', 8790 => 'CC' );
Here's what I need to do:
Find a number
Look up the text code for the number using my_hash
Check if the text code appears within 50 characters of the identified number, and if true print the result
So the output I'm looking for is:
Found 9337, matches 'AA'
Found 2214, matches 'BB'
Found 1190, no matches
Found 8790, no matches
Here's what I have so far:
while ( $text =~ /(\d+)(.{1,50})/g ) {
$num = $1;
$text_after_num = $2;
$search_for = $my_hash{$num};
if ( $text_after_num =~ /($search_for)/ ) {
print "Found $num, matches $search_for\n";
}
else {
print "Found $num, no matches\n";
}
This sort of works, except that the only correct match is 9337; the code doesn't match 2214. I think the reason is that the regular expression match on 9337 is including 50 characters after the number for the second-step match, and then when the regex engine starts again it is starting from a point after the 2214. Is there an easy way to fix this? I think the \G modifier can help me here, but I don't quite see how.
Any suggestions or help would be great.
You have a problem with greediness. The 1,50 will consume as much as it can. Your regex should be /(\d+)(.+?)(?=($|\d))/
To explain, the question mark will make the multiple match non-greedy (it will stop as soon as the next pattern is matched - the next pattern gets precedence). The ?= is a lookahead operator to say "check if the next element is a digit. If so, match but do not consume." This allows the first digit to get picked up by the beginning of the regex and be put into the next matched pattern.
[EDIT]
I added an optional end value to the lookahead so that it wouldn't die on the last match.
Just use :
/\b\d+\b/g
Why match everything if you don't need to? You should use other functions to determine where the number is :
/(?=9337.{1,50}AA)/
This will fail if AA is further than 50 chars away from the end of 9337. Of course you will have to interpolate your variables to match your hashe's keys and values. This was just an example for your first key/value pair.
Related
I am using Perl to do some prototyping.
I need an expression to replace e by [ee] if the string is exactly 2 chars and finishes by "e".
le -> l [ee]
me -> m [ee]
elle -> elle : no change
I cannot test the length of the string, I need one expression to do the whole job.
I tried:
`s/(?=^.{0,2}\z).*e\z%/[ee]/g` but this is replacing the whole string
`s/^[c|d|j|l|m|n|s|t]e$/[ee]/g` same result (I listed the possible letters that could precede my "e")
`^(?<=[c|d|j|l|m|n|s|t])e$/[ee]/g` but I have no match, not sure I can use ^ on a positive look behind
EDIT
Guys you're amazing, hours of search on the web and here I get answers minutes after I posted.
I tried all your solutions and they are working perfectly directly in my script, i.e. this one:
my $test2="le";
$test2=~ s/^(\S)e$/\1\[ee\]/g;
print "test2:".$test2."\n";
-> test2:l[ee]
But I am loading these regex from a text file (using Perl for proto, the idea is to reuse it with any language implementing regex):
In the text file I store for example (I used % to split the line between match and replace):
^(\S)e$% \1\[ee\]
and then I parse and apply all regex like that:
my $test="le";
while (my $row = <$fh>) {
chomp $row;
if( $row =~ /%/){
my #reg = split /%/, $row;
#if no replacement, put empty string
if($#reg == 0){
push(#reg,"");
}
print "reg found, reg:".$reg[0].", replace:".$reg[1]."\n";
push #regs, [ #reg ];
}
}
print "orgine:".$test."\n";
for my $i (0 .. $#regs){
my $p=$regs[$i][0];
my $r=$regs[$i][1];
$test=~ s/$p/$r/g;
}
print "final:".$test."\n";
This technique is working well with my other regex, but not yet when I have a $1 or \1 in the replace... here is what I am obtaining:
final:\1\ee\
PS: you answered to initial question, should I open another post ?
Something like s/(?i)^([a-z])e$/$1[ee]/
Why aren't you using a capture group to do the replacement?
`s/^([c|d|j|l|m|n|s|t])e$/\1 [ee]/g`
If those are the characters you need and if it is indeed one word to a line with no whitespace before it or after it, then this will work.
Here's another option depending on what you are looking for. It will match a two character string consisting of one a-z character followed by one 'e' on its own line with possible whitespace before or after. It will replace this will the single a-z character followed by ' [ee]'
`s/^\s*([a-z])e\s*$/\1 [ee]/`
^(\S)e$
Try this.Replace by $1 [ee].See demo.
https://regex101.com/r/hR7tH4/28
I'd do something like this
$word =~ s/^(\w{1})(e)$/$1$2e/;
You can use following regex which match 2 character and then you can replace it with $1\[$2$2\]:
^([a-zA-Z])([a-zA-Z])$
Demo :
$my_string =~ s/^([a-zA-Z])([a-zA-Z])$/$1[$2$2]/;
See demo https://regex101.com/r/iD9oN4/1
I have this little script:
my #list = ('R3_05_foo.txt','T3_12_foo_bar.txt','01.txt');
foreach (#list) {
s/(\d{2}).*\.txt$/$1.txt/;
s/^0+//;
print $_ . "\n";
}
The expected output would be
5.txt
12.txt
1.txt
But instead, I get
R3_05.txt
T3_12.txt
1.txt
The last one is fine, but I cannot fathom why the regex gives me the string start for $1 on this case.
Try this pattern
foreach (#list) {
s/^.*?_?(?|0(\d)|(\d{2})).*\.txt$/$1.txt/;
print $_ . "\n";
}
Explanations:
I use here the branch reset feature (i.e. (?|...()...|...()...)) that allows to put several capturing groups in a single reference ( $1 here ). So, you avoid using a second replacement to trim a zero from the left of the capture.
To remove all from the begining before the number, I use :
.*? # all characters zero or more times
# ( ? -> make the * quantifier lazy to match as less as possible)
_? # an optional underscore
Note that you can ensure that you have only 2 digits adding a lookahead to check if there is not a digit that follows:
s/^.*?_?(?|0(\d)|(\d{2}))(?!\d).*\.txt$/$1.txt/;
(?!\d) means not followed by a digit.
The problem here is that your substitution regex does not cover the whole string, so only part of the string is substituted. But you are using a rather complex solution for a simple problem.
It seems that what you want is to read two digits from the string, and then add .txt to the end of it. So why not just do that?
my #list = ('R3_05_foo.txt','T3_12_foo_bar.txt','01.txt');
for (#list) {
if (/(\d{2})/) {
$_ = "$1.txt";
}
}
To overcome the leading zero effect, you can force a conversion to a number by adding zero to it:
$_ = 0+$1 . ".txt";
I would modify your regular expression. Try using this code:
my #list = ('R3_05_foo.txt','T3_12_foo_bar.txt','01.txt');
foreach (#list) {
s/.*(\d{2}).*\.txt$/$1.txt/;
s/^0+//;
print $_ . "\n";
}
The problem is that the first part in your s/// matches, what you think it does, but that the second part isn't replacing what you think it should. s/// will only replace what was previously matched. Thus to replace something like T3_ you will have to match that too.
s/.*(\d{2}).*\.txt$/$1.txt/;
I want to use a regular expression to check a string to make sure 4 and 5 are in order. I thought I could do this by doing
'$string =~ m/.45./'
I think I am going wrong somewhere. I am very new to Perl. I would honestly like to put it in an array and search through it and find out that way, but I'm assuming there is a much easier way to do it with regex.
print "input please:\n";
$input = <STDIN>;
chop($input);
if ($input =~ m/45/ and $input =~ m/5./) {
print "works";
}
else {
print "nata";
}
EDIT: Added Info
I just want 4 and 5 in order, but if 5 comes before at all say 322195458900023 is the number then where 545 is a problem 5 always have to come right after 4.
Assuming you want to match any string that contains two digits where the first digit is smaller than the second:
There is an obscure feature called "postponed regular expressions". We can include code inside a regular expression with
(??{CODE})
and the value of that code is interpolated into the regex.
The special verb (*FAIL) makes sure that the match fails (in fact only the current branch). We can combine this into following one-liner:
perl -ne'print /(\d)(\d)(??{$1<$2 ? "" : "(*FAIL)"})/ ? "yes\n" :"no\n"'
It prints yes when the current line contains two digits where the first digit is smaller than the second digit, and no when this is not the case.
The regex explained:
m{
(\d) # match a number, save it in $1
(\d) # match another number, save it in $2
(??{ # start postponed regex
$1 < $2 # if $1 is smaller than $2
? "" # then return the empty string (i.e. succeed)
: "(*FAIL)" # else return the *FAIL verb
}) # close postponed regex
}x; # /x modifier so I could use spaces and comments
However, this is a bit advanced and masochistic; using an array is (1) far easier to understand, and (2) probably better anyway. But it is still possible using only regexes.
Edit
Here is a way to make sure that no 5 is followed by a 4:
/^(?:[^5]+|5(?=[^4]|$))*$/
This reads as: The string is composed from any number (zero or more) characters that are not a five, or a five that is followed by either a character that is not a four or the five is the end of the string.
This regex is also a possibility:
/^(?:[^45]+|45)*$/
it allows any characters in the string that are not 4 or 5, or the sequence 45. I.e., there are no single 4s or 5s allowed.
You just need to match all 5 and search fails, where preceded is not 4:
if( $str =~ /(?<!4)5/ ) {
#Fail
}
I'm trying to learn something about regular expressions.
Here is what I'm going to match:
/parent/child
/parent/child?
/parent/child?firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?secondparam=def456
/parent/child?firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
/parent/child?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?thirdparam=ghi789&secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child?thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child/
/parent/child/?
/parent/child/?firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456
/parent/child/?firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?thirdparam=ghi789&secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child/?thirdparam=ghi789
My expression should "grabs" abc123 and def456.
And now just an example about what I'm not going to match ("question mark" is missing):
/parent/child/firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
Well, I built the following expression:
^(?:/parent/child){1}(?:^(?:/\?|\?)+(?:firstparam=([^&]*)|secondparam=([^&]*)|[^&]*)?)?
But that doesn't work.
Could you help me to understand what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.
UPDATE 1
Ok, I made other tests.
I'm trying to fix the previous version with something like this:
/parent/child(?:(?:\?|/\?)+(?:firstparam=([^&]*)|secondparam=([^&]*)|[^&]*)?)?$
Let me explain my idea:
Must start with /parent/child:
/parent/child
Following group is optional
(?: ... )?
The previous optional group must starts with ? or /?
(?:\?|/\?)+
Optional parameters (I grab values if specified parameters are part of querystring)
(?:firstparam=([^&]*)|secondparam=([^&]*)|[^&]*)?
End of line
$
Any advice?
UPDATE 2
My solution must be based just on regular expressions.
Just for example, I previously wrote the following one:
/parent/child(?:[?&/]*(?:firstparam=([^&]*)|secondparam=([^&]*)|[^&]*))*$
And that works pretty nice.
But it matches the following input too:
/parent/child/firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
How could I modify the expression in order to not match the previous string?
You didn't specify a language so I'll just usre Perl. So basically instead of matching everything, I just matched exactly what I thought you needed. Correct me if I am wrong please.
while ($subject =~ m/(?<==)\w+?(?=&|\W|$)/g) {
# matched text = $&
}
(?<= # Assert that the regex below can be matched, with the match ending at this position (positive lookbehind)
= # Match the character “=” literally
)
\\w # Match a single character that is a “word character” (letters, digits, and underscores)
+? # Between one and unlimited times, as few times as possible, expanding as needed (lazy)
(?= # Assert that the regex below can be matched, starting at this position (positive lookahead)
# Match either the regular expression below (attempting the next alternative only if this one fails)
& # Match the character “&” literally
| # Or match regular expression number 2 below (attempting the next alternative only if this one fails)
\\W # Match a single character that is a “non-word character”
| # Or match regular expression number 3 below (the entire group fails if this one fails to match)
\$ # Assert position at the end of the string (or before the line break at the end of the string, if any)
)
Output:
This regex will work as long as you know what your parameter names are going to be and you're sure that they won't change.
\/parent\/child\/?\?(?:(?:firstparam|secondparam|thirdparam)\=([\w]+)&?)(?:(?:firstparam|secondparam|thirdparam)\=([\w]+)&?)?(?:(?:firstparam|secondparam|thirdparam)\=([\w]+)&?)?
Whilst regex is not the best solution for this (the above code examples will be far more efficient, as string functions are way faster than regexes) this will work if you need a regex solution with up to 3 parameters. Out of interest, why must the solution use only regex?
In any case, this regex will match the following strings:
/parent/child?firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?secondparam=def456
/parent/child?firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
/parent/child?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?thirdparam=ghi789&secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child?thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child/?firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456
/parent/child/?firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?thirdparam=ghi789&secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child/?thirdparam=ghi789
It will now only match those containing query string parameters, and put them into capture groups for you.
What language are you using to process your matches?
If you are using preg_match with PHP, you can get the whole match as well as capture groups in an array with
preg_match($regex, $string, $matches);
Then you can access the whole match with $matches[0] and the rest with $matches[1], $matches[2], etc.
If you want to add additional parameters you'll also need to add them in the regex too, and add additional parts to get your data. For example, if you had
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&fourthparam=jkl01112&thirdparam=ghi789
The regex will become
\/parent\/child\/?\?(?:(?:firstparam|secondparam|thirdparam|fourthparam)\=([\w]+)&?)(?:(?:firstparam|secondparam|thirdparam|fourthparam)\=([\w]+)&?)?(?:(?:firstparam|secondparam|thirdparam|fourthparam)\=([\w]+)&?)?(?:(?:firstparam|secondparam|thirdparam|fourthparam)\=([\w]+)&?)?
This will become a bit more tedious to maintain as you add more parameters, though.
You can optionally include ^ $ at the start and end if the multi-line flag is enabled. If you also need to match the whole lines without query strings, wrap this whole regex in a non-capture group (including ^ $) and add
|(?:^\/parent\/child\/?\??$)
to the end.
You're not escaping the /s in your regex for starters and using {1} for a single repetition of something is unnecessary; you only use those when you want more than one repetition or a range of repetitions.
And part of what you're trying to do is simply not a good use of a regex. I'll show you an easier way to deal with that: you want to use something like split and put the information into a hash that you can check the contents of later. Because you didn't specify a language, I'm just going to use Perl for my example, but every language I know with regexes also has easy access to hashes and something like split, so this should be easy enough to port:
# I picked an example to show how this works.
my $route = '/parent/child/?first=123&second=345&third=678';
my %params; # I'm going to put those URL parameters in this hash.
# Perl has a way to let me avoid escaping the /s, but I wanted an example that
# works in other languages too.
if ($route =~ m/\/parent\/child\/\?(.*)/) { # Use the regex for this part
print "Matched route.\n";
# But NOT for this part.
my $query = $1; # $1 is a Perl thing. It contains what (.*) matched above.
my #items = split '&', $query; # Each item is something like param=123
foreach my $item (#items) {
my ($param, $value) = split '=', $item;
$params{$param} = $value; # Put the parameters in a hash for easy access.
print "$param set to $value \n";
}
}
# Now you can check the parameter values and do whatever you need to with them.
# And you can add new parameters whenever you want, etc.
if ($params{'first'} eq '123') {
# Do whatever
}
My solution:
/(?:\w+/)*(?:(?:\w+)?\?(?:\w+=\w+(?:&\w+=\w+)*)?|\w+|)
Explain:
/(?:\w+/)* match /parent/child/ or /parent/
(?:\w+)?\?(?:\w+=\w+(?:&\w+=\w+)*)? match child?firstparam=abc123 or ?firstparam=abc123 or ?
\w+ match text like child
..|) match nothing(empty)
If you need only query string, pattern would reduce such as:
/(?:\w+/)*(?:\w+)?\?(\w+=\w+(?:&\w+=\w+)*)
If you want to get every parameter from query string, this is a Ruby sample:
re = /\/(?:\w+\/)*(?:\w+)?\?(\w+=\w+(?:&\w+=\w+)*)/
s = '/parent/child?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&thirdparam=ghi789'
if m = s.match(re)
query_str = m[1] # now, you can 100% trust this string
query_str.scan(/(\w+)=(\w+)/) do |param,value| #grab parameter
printf("%s, %s\n", param, value)
end
end
output
secondparam, def456
firstparam, abc123
thirdparam, ghi789
This script will help you.
First, i check, is there any symbol like ?.
Then, i kill first part of line (left from ?).
Next, i split line by &, where each value splitted by =.
my $r = q"/parent/child
/parent/child?
/parent/child?firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?secondparam=def456
/parent/child?firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
/parent/child?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?thirdparam=ghi789&secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child?thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child/
/parent/child/?
/parent/child/?firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456
/parent/child/?firstparam=abc123&secondparam=def456
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?thirdparam=ghi789&secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123
/parent/child/?secondparam=def456&firstparam=abc123&thirdparam=ghi789
/parent/child/?thirdparam=ghi789";
for my $string(split /\n/, $r){
if (index($string,'?')!=-1){
substr($string, 0, index($string,'?')+1,"");
#say "string = ".$string;
if (index($string,'=')!=-1){
my #params = map{$_ = [split /=/, $_];}split/\&/, $string;
$"="\n";
say "$_->[0] === $_->[1]" for (#params);
say "######next########";
}
else{
#print "there is no params!"
}
}
else{
#say "there is no params!";
}
}
I'm writing regular expression for checking if there is a substring, that contains at least 2 repeats of some pattern next to each other. I'm matching the result of regex with former string - if equal, there is such pattern. Better said by example: 1010 contains pattern 10 and it is there 2 times in continuous series. On other hand 10210 wouldn't have such pattern, because those 10 are not adjacent.
What's more, I need to find the longest pattern possible, and it's length is at least 1. I have written the expression to check for it ^.*?(.+)(\1).*?$. To find longest pattern, I've used non-greedy version to match something before patter, then pattern is matched to group 1 and once again same thing that has been matched for group1 is matched. Then the rest of string is matched, producing equal string. But there's a problem that regex is eager to return after finding first pattern, and don't really take into account that I intend to make those substrings before and after shortest possible (leaving the rest longest possible). So from string 01011010 I get correctly that there's match, but the pattern stored in group 1 is just 01 though I'd except 101.
As I believe I can't make pattern "more greedy" or trash before and after even "more non-greedy" I can only come whit an idea to make regex less eager, but I'm not sure if this is possible.
Further examples:
56712453289 - no pattern - no match with former string
22010110100 - pattern 101 - match with former string (regex resulted in 22010110100 with 101 in group 1)
5555555 - pattern 555 - match
1919191919 - pattern 1919 - match
191919191919 - pattern 191919 - match
2323191919191919 - pattern 191919 - match
What I would get using current expression (same strings used):
no pattern - no match
pattern 2 - match
pattern 555 - match
pattern 1919 - match
pattern 191919 - match
pattern 23 - match
In Perl you can do it with one expression with help of (??{ code }):
$_ = '01011010';
say /(?=(.+)\1)(?!(??{ '.+?(..{' . length($^N) . ',})\1' }))/;
Output:
101
What happens here is that after a matching consecutive pair of substrings, we make sure with a negative lookahead that there is no longer pair following it.
To make the expression for the longer pair a postponed subexpression construct is used (??{ code }), which evaluates the code inside (every time) and uses the returned string as an expression.
The subexpression it constructs has the form .+?(..{N,})\1, where N is the current length of the first capturing group (length($^N), $^N contains the current value of the previous capturing group).
Thus the full expression would have the form:
(?=(.+)\1)(?!.+?(..{N,})\2}))
With the magical N (and second capturing group not being a "real"/proper capturing group of the original expression).
Usage example:
use v5.10;
sub longest_rep{
$_[0] =~ /(?=(.+)\1)(?!(??{ '.+?(..{' . length($^N) . ',})\1' }))/;
}
say longest_rep '01011010';
say longest_rep '010110101000110001';
say longest_rep '2323191919191919';
say longest_rep '22010110100';
Output:
101
10001
191919
101
You can do it in a single regex, you just have to pick the longest match from the list of results manually.
def longestrepeating(strg):
regex = re.compile(r"(?=(.+)\1)")
matches = regex.findall(strg)
if matches:
return max(matches, key=len)
This gives you (since re.findall() returns a list of the matching capturing groups, even though the matches themselves are zero-length):
>>> longestrepeating("yabyababyab")
'abyab'
>>> longestrepeating("10100101")
'010'
>>> strings = ["56712453289", "22010110100", "5555555", "1919191919",
"191919191919", "2323191919191919"]
>>> [longestrepeating(s) for s in strings]
[None, '101', '555', '1919', '191919', '191919']
Here's a long-ish script that does what you ask. It basically goes through your input string, shortens it by one, then goes through it again. Once all possible matches are found, it returns one of the longest. It is possible to tweak it so that all the longest matches are returned, instead of just one, but I'll leave that to you.
It's pretty rudimentary code, but hopefully you'll get the gist of it.
use v5.10;
use strict;
use warnings;
while (<DATA>) {
chomp;
print "$_ : ";
my $longest = foo($_);
if ($longest) {
say $longest;
} else {
say "No matches found";
}
}
sub foo {
my $num = shift;
my #hits;
for my $i (0 .. length($num)) {
my $part = substr $num, $i;
push #hits, $part =~ /(.+)(?=\1)/g;
}
my $long = shift #hits;
for (#hits) {
if (length($long) < length) {
$long = $_;
}
}
return $long;
}
__DATA__
56712453289
22010110100
5555555
1919191919
191919191919
2323191919191919
Not sure if anyone's thought of this...
my $originalstring="pdxabababqababqh1234112341";
my $max=int(length($originalstring)/2);
my #result;
foreach my $n (reverse(1..$max)) {
#result=$originalstring=~m/(.{$n})\1/g;
last if #result;
}
print join(",",#result),"\n";
The longest doubled match cannot exceed half the length of the original string, so we count down from there.
If the matches are suspected to be small relative to the length of the original string, then this idea could be reversed... instead of counting down until we find the match, we count up until there are no more matches. Then we need to back up 1 and give that result. We would also need to put a comma after the $n in the regex.
my $n;
foreach (1..$max) {
unless (#result=$originalstring=~m/(.{$_,})\1/g) {
$n=--$_;
last;
}
}
#result=$originalstring=~m/(.{$n})\1/g;
print join(",",#result),"\n";
Regular expressions can be helpful in solving this, but I don't think you can do it as a single expression, since you want to find the longest successful match, whereas regexes just look for the first match they can find. Greediness can be used to tweak which match is found first (earlier vs. later in the string), but I can't think of a way to prefer an earlier, longer substring over a later, shorter substring while also preferring a later, longer substring over an earlier, shorter substring.
One approach using regular expressions would be to iterate over the possible lengths, in decreasing order, and quit as soon as you find a match of the specified length:
my $s = '01011010';
my $one = undef;
for(my $i = int (length($s) / 2); $i > 0; --$i)
{
if($s =~ m/(.{$i})\1/)
{
$one = $1;
last;
}
}
# now $one is '101'