How to pattern match using regular expression in Scala? - regex

I would like to be able to find a match between the first letter of a word, and one of the letters in a group such as "ABC". In pseudocode, this might look something like:
case Process(word) =>
word.firstLetter match {
case([a-c][A-C]) =>
case _ =>
}
}
But how do I grab the first letter in Scala instead of Java? How do I express the regular expression properly? Is it possible to do this within a case class?

You can do this because regular expressions define extractors but you need to define the regex pattern first. I don't have access to a Scala REPL to test this but something like this should work.
val Pattern = "([a-cA-C])".r
word.firstLetter match {
case Pattern(c) => c bound to capture group here
case _ =>
}

Since version 2.10, one can use Scala's string interpolation feature:
implicit class RegexOps(sc: StringContext) {
def r = new util.matching.Regex(sc.parts.mkString, sc.parts.tail.map(_ => "x"): _*)
}
scala> "123" match { case r"\d+" => true case _ => false }
res34: Boolean = true
Even better one can bind regular expression groups:
scala> "123" match { case r"(\d+)$d" => d.toInt case _ => 0 }
res36: Int = 123
scala> "10+15" match { case r"(\d\d)${first}\+(\d\d)${second}" => first.toInt+second.toInt case _ => 0 }
res38: Int = 25
It is also possible to set more detailed binding mechanisms:
scala> object Doubler { def unapply(s: String) = Some(s.toInt*2) }
defined module Doubler
scala> "10" match { case r"(\d\d)${Doubler(d)}" => d case _ => 0 }
res40: Int = 20
scala> object isPositive { def unapply(s: String) = s.toInt >= 0 }
defined module isPositive
scala> "10" match { case r"(\d\d)${d # isPositive()}" => d.toInt case _ => 0 }
res56: Int = 10
An impressive example on what's possible with Dynamic is shown in the blog post Introduction to Type Dynamic:
object T {
class RegexpExtractor(params: List[String]) {
def unapplySeq(str: String) =
params.headOption flatMap (_.r unapplySeq str)
}
class StartsWithExtractor(params: List[String]) {
def unapply(str: String) =
params.headOption filter (str startsWith _) map (_ => str)
}
class MapExtractor(keys: List[String]) {
def unapplySeq[T](map: Map[String, T]) =
Some(keys.map(map get _))
}
import scala.language.dynamics
class ExtractorParams(params: List[String]) extends Dynamic {
val Map = new MapExtractor(params)
val StartsWith = new StartsWithExtractor(params)
val Regexp = new RegexpExtractor(params)
def selectDynamic(name: String) =
new ExtractorParams(params :+ name)
}
object p extends ExtractorParams(Nil)
Map("firstName" -> "John", "lastName" -> "Doe") match {
case p.firstName.lastName.Map(
Some(p.Jo.StartsWith(fn)),
Some(p.`.*(\\w)$`.Regexp(lastChar))) =>
println(s"Match! $fn ...$lastChar")
case _ => println("nope")
}
}

As delnan pointed out, the match keyword in Scala has nothing to do with regexes. To find out whether a string matches a regex, you can use the String.matches method. To find out whether a string starts with an a, b or c in lower or upper case, the regex would look like this:
word.matches("[a-cA-C].*")
You can read this regex as "one of the characters a, b, c, A, B or C followed by anything" (. means "any character" and * means "zero or more times", so ".*" is any string).

To expand a little on Andrew's answer: The fact that regular expressions define extractors can be used to decompose the substrings matched by the regex very nicely using Scala's pattern matching, e.g.:
val Process = """([a-cA-C])([^\s]+)""".r // define first, rest is non-space
for (p <- Process findAllIn "aha bah Cah dah") p match {
case Process("b", _) => println("first: 'a', some rest")
case Process(_, rest) => println("some first, rest: " + rest)
// etc.
}

String.matches is the way to do pattern matching in the regex sense.
But as a handy aside, word.firstLetter in real Scala code looks like:
word(0)
Scala treats Strings as a sequence of Char's, so if for some reason you wanted to explicitly get the first character of the String and match it, you could use something like this:
"Cat"(0).toString.matches("[a-cA-C]")
res10: Boolean = true
I'm not proposing this as the general way to do regex pattern matching, but it's in line with your proposed approach to first find the first character of a String and then match it against a regex.
EDIT:
To be clear, the way I would do this is, as others have said:
"Cat".matches("^[a-cA-C].*")
res14: Boolean = true
Just wanted to show an example as close as possible to your initial pseudocode. Cheers!

First we should know that regular expression can separately be used. Here is an example:
import scala.util.matching.Regex
val pattern = "Scala".r // <=> val pattern = new Regex("Scala")
val str = "Scala is very cool"
val result = pattern findFirstIn str
result match {
case Some(v) => println(v)
case _ =>
} // output: Scala
Second we should notice that combining regular expression with pattern matching would be very powerful. Here is a simple example.
val date = """(\d\d\d\d)-(\d\d)-(\d\d)""".r
"2014-11-20" match {
case date(year, month, day) => "hello"
} // output: hello
In fact, regular expression itself is already very powerful; the only thing we need to do is to make it more powerful by Scala. Here are more examples in Scala Document: http://www.scala-lang.org/files/archive/api/current/index.html#scala.util.matching.Regex

Note that the approach from #AndrewMyers's answer matches the entire string to the regular expression, with the effect of anchoring the regular expression at both ends of the string using ^ and $. Example:
scala> val MY_RE = "(foo|bar).*".r
MY_RE: scala.util.matching.Regex = (foo|bar).*
scala> val result = "foo123" match { case MY_RE(m) => m; case _ => "No match" }
result: String = foo
scala> val result = "baz123" match { case MY_RE(m) => m; case _ => "No match" }
result: String = No match
scala> val result = "abcfoo123" match { case MY_RE(m) => m; case _ => "No match" }
result: String = No match
And with no .* at the end:
scala> val MY_RE2 = "(foo|bar)".r
MY_RE2: scala.util.matching.Regex = (foo|bar)
scala> val result = "foo123" match { case MY_RE2(m) => m; case _ => "No match" }
result: String = No match

Related

Scala, regex matching ignore unnecessary words

My program is:
val pattern = "[*]prefix_([a-zA-Z]*)_[*]".r
val outputFieldMod = "TRASHprefix_target_TRASH"
var tar =
outputFieldMod match {
case pattern(target) => target
}
println(tar)
Basically, I try to get the "target" and ignore "TRASH" (I used *). But it has some error and I am not sure why..
Simple and straight forward standard library function (unanchored)
Use Unanchored
Solution one
Use unanchored on the pattern to match inside the string ignoring the trash
val pattern = "prefix_([a-zA-Z]*)_".r.unanchored
unanchored will only match the pattern ignoring all the trash (all the other words)
val result = str match {
case pattern(value) => value
case _ => ""
}
Example
Scala REPL
scala> val pattern = """foo\((.*)\)""".r.unanchored
pattern: scala.util.matching.UnanchoredRegex = foo\((.*)\)
scala> val str = "blahblahfoo(bar)blahblah"
str: String = blahblahfoo(bar)blahblah
scala> str match { case pattern(value) => value ; case _ => "no match" }
res3: String = bar
Solution two
Pad your pattern from both sides with .*. .* matches any char other than a linebreak character.
val pattern = ".*prefix_([a-zA-Z]*)_.*".r
val result = str match {
case pattern(value) => value
case _ => ""
}
Example
Scala REPL
scala> val pattern = """.*foo\((.*)\).*""".r
pattern: scala.util.matching.Regex = .*foo\((.*)\).*
scala> val str = "blahblahfoo(bar)blahblah"
str: String = blahblahfoo(bar)blahblah
scala> str match { case pattern(value) => value ; case _ => "no match" }
res4: String = bar
This will work, val pattern = ".*prefix_([a-z]+).*".r, but it distinguishes between target and trash via lower/upper-case letters. Whatever determines real target data from trash data will determine the real regex pattern.

Matching or regular expression in scala

I have a regular expression like ".*(A20).*|.*(B30).*|C".
I would like to write a function its returns A20 or B30 based on the match found.
val regx=".*(A20).*|.*(B30).*".r
"helloA20" match { case regx(b,_) => b; case _ => "" } // A20
"helloB30" match { case regx(b,_) => b; case _ => "" } // null
"C" match { case regx(b,_) => b case _ => "" }
It's returning null because I am not considering the second group. In my actual code, I have a lot of group like that. I would like to return the matched string. Please help me to find a solution.
Easy! It should be like this:
val regx="^(.*(B30|A20).*|(C))$".r
Demo: https://regex101.com/r/nA6dQ9/1
Then you get the second value in the array of every group.
That way you only have one group regardless of the many possibilities.
You're close:
def extract(s: String) = s match {
case regx(b, _) if b != null => b
case regx(_, b) if b != null => b
case _ => ""
}
extract("helloA20")
res3: String = A20
extract("helloB30")
res4: String = B30
extract("A30&B30")
res6: String = B30
If you have a lot of groups, it's reasonable to use for comprehension insted of pattern matching. This code will return first match or None:
val letters = ('A' to 'Z').toSeq
val regex = letters.map(_.toString).mkString("(", "|", ")").r
def extract(s: String) = {
for {
m <- regex.findFirstMatchIn(s)
} yield m.group(1)
}
extract("A=B=")
extract("dsfdsBA")
extract("C====b")
extract("a====E")
res0: Option[String] = Some(A)
res1: Option[String] = Some(B)
res2: Option[String] = Some(C)
res3: Option[String] = Some(E)

Scala: how to construct a regex including a variable?

I want to test if a regex including a variable that I defined before matches a string.
For instance I would like to do :
val value = "abc"
regex = "[^a-z]".r + value //something like that
if(regex matches ".abc") print("ok, it works")
So my question is : how can I add construct a regex including a variable in scala?
("[^a-z]" + value).r
is all you need
You must quote the value string to protect against special regex syntax.
scala> val value = "*"
value: String = *
scala> val oops = """[^a-z]""" + value r
oops: scala.util.matching.Regex = [^a-z]*
scala> ".*" match { case oops() => }
scala> ".....*" match { case oops() => }
They added quoting to the Scala API:
scala> import util.matching._
import util.matching._
scala> val ok = """[^a-z]""" + Regex.quote(value) r
ok: scala.util.matching.Regex = [^a-z]\Q*\E
scala> ".*" match { case ok() => }
scala> ".....*" match { case ok() => }
scala.MatchError: .....* (of class java.lang.String)
... 33 elided
You could also generalize the pattern and do additional checks:
scala> val r = """\W(\w+)""".r
r: scala.util.matching.Regex = \W(\w+)
scala> ".abc" match { case r(s) if s == "abc" => }
Parsing and building the regex itself is relatively expensive, so usually it's desirable to do it once with a general pattern.

Do parenthesized groups work in Scala?

Parentheses in regular expressions don't seem to work in match/case statements. For example, the following code
val pat1 = """ab""".r
val pat2 = """(a)(b)""".r
val pat3 = """((a)(b))""".r
val pat4 = """((a)b)""".r
val pat5 = """(ab)""".r
"ab" match {
case pat1(x) => println("1 " + x)
case pat2(x) => println("2 " + x)
case pat3(x) => println("3 " + x)
case pat4(x) => println("4 " + x)
case pat5(x) => println("5 " + x)
case _ => println("None of the above")
}
prints "5 ab", but I would have expected any of the patterns to match. I'd like to use "(...)?" optional elements, but I can't. Related to this, I can't get (?m) to work. My patterns work okay outside of a match/case expression. Can someone explain to me how Scala handles regular expressions in match/case expressions?
I'm trying to write a tokenizer in Scala
Regex defines unapplySeq, not unapply, which means that you get each group in its own variable. Also, although lower-case matchers may work in some instances (i.e. with parameters), you really should use upper-case. So, what will work is:
val Pat1 = """ab""".r
val Pat2 = """(a)(b)""".r
val Pat3 = """((a)(b))""".r
val Pat4 = """((a)b)""".r
val Pat5 = """(ab)""".r
def no() { println("No match") }
"ab" match { case Pat1() => println("Pat1"); case _ => no }
"ab" match { case Pat2(x,y) => println("Pat2 "+x+" "+y); case _ => no }
"ab" match { case Pat3(x,y,z) => println("Pat3 "+x+" "+y+" "+z); case _ => no }
"ab" match { case Pat4(x,y) => println("Pat4 "+x+" "+y); case _ => no }
"ab" match { case Pat5(x) => println("Pat5 "+x); case _ => no }
(You will always get a match.)
If you want all matches, use # _*
"ab" match { case Pat3(w # _*) => println(w); case _ => no }
I'm not sure what you mean by (?a) so I don't know what's wrong with it. Don't confuse (?a) with (?:a) (or with (a?) or with (a)?).
Here's an example of how you can access group(1) of each match:
val string = "one493two483three"
val pattern = """two(\d+)three""".r
pattern.findAllIn(string).matchData foreach {
m => println(m.group(1))
}
Test this demo here.

Scala capture group using regex

Let's say I have this code:
val string = "one493two483three"
val pattern = """two(\d+)three""".r
pattern.findAllIn(string).foreach(println)
I expected findAllIn to only return 483, but instead, it returned two483three. I know I could use unapply to extract only that part, but I'd have to have a pattern for the entire string, something like:
val pattern = """one.*two(\d+)three""".r
val pattern(aMatch) = string
println(aMatch) // prints 483
Is there another way of achieving this, without using the classes from java.util directly, and without using unapply?
Here's an example of how you can access group(1) of each match:
val string = "one493two483three"
val pattern = """two(\d+)three""".r
pattern.findAllIn(string).matchData foreach {
m => println(m.group(1))
}
This prints "483" (as seen on ideone.com).
The lookaround option
Depending on the complexity of the pattern, you can also use lookarounds to only match the portion you want. It'll look something like this:
val string = "one493two483three"
val pattern = """(?<=two)\d+(?=three)""".r
pattern.findAllIn(string).foreach(println)
The above also prints "483" (as seen on ideone.com).
References
regular-expressions.info/Lookarounds
val string = "one493two483three"
val pattern = """.*two(\d+)three.*""".r
string match {
case pattern(a483) => println(a483) //matched group(1) assigned to variable a483
case _ => // no match
}
Starting Scala 2.13, as an alternative to regex solutions, it's also possible to pattern match a String by unapplying a string interpolator:
"one493two483three" match { case s"${x}two${y}three" => y }
// String = "483"
Or even:
val s"${x}two${y}three" = "one493two483three"
// x: String = one493
// y: String = 483
If you expect non matching input, you can add a default pattern guard:
"one493deux483three" match {
case s"${x}two${y}three" => y
case _ => "no match"
}
// String = "no match"
You want to look at group(1), you're currently looking at group(0), which is "the entire matched string".
See this regex tutorial.
def extractFileNameFromHttpFilePathExpression(expr: String) = {
//define regex
val regex = "http4.*\\/(\\w+.(xlsx|xls|zip))$".r
// findFirstMatchIn/findAllMatchIn returns Option[Match] and Match has methods to access capture groups.
regex.findFirstMatchIn(expr) match {
case Some(i) => i.group(1)
case None => "regex_error"
}
}
extractFileNameFromHttpFilePathExpression(
"http4://testing.bbmkl.com/document/sth1234.zip")