Regex extract producing extra characters in the results [\ \"]"

6 years ago
21 July 2017
8 replies
10 views

kevyn_williams
15 replies

Hi there,

I'm using a regex in a workflow to extract some text from a string, save it to a variable and then update a column with that variable (if it doesn't already match).

My regex:

(?<=-).+(?=-)

However when the column is updated, the value entered has [" "] around it - does anyone know why?

Original string:

RANDOMSTRING1 - RANDOMSTRING2 - RANDOMSTRING3

Regex (extract):

(?<=-).+(?=-)

Result:

[" RANDOMSTRING2 "]

Any help greatly appreciated, example here: regex101

8 replies

Userlevel 4

Hi Kevyn Williams‌

Try this

(?<=- ).+(?= -)

Notice the space after the first hyphen and before the second hyphen

Hope this helps

‌

Userlevel 4

Hi ‌

my first reply will remove the additional spaces, but you have a collection after the regents so save the regret output into a collection variable and then use a collection operation to get the index of 0 from the collection

see ‌ if you need more info

‌

Your first reply did remove the whitespaces which is great, however the result when written to my sharepoint column still contains the additional [" "]

Please could you give a little more detail about the requirement for a collection operation? I've never used this before and am fairly new to nintex...

Are you saying we need to save this variable to a collection and then select the item from the collection rather than from the variable?

Userlevel 4

Exactly. Save this to a collection variable. Then create a integer or number variable and set this to a default value of 0. Then use a collection operation of get and use the number variable for the index and save this to a text variable and you should get the desired result.

Any more problems let me know

Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

Are you using Nintex for SP2013? If so, you could use the "Trim String" action to clean-up your leading/trailing spaces.

Sorry for slow reply - only just got around to testing this out. Even when I add the trimmed values to a collection ID, when I retrieve the collection ID it still has the extra [" "] around it...

My steps are:

Set variable :
- 'Project Current'
- value: Current Item: Project
- Info: this sets the value from SP column 'project', which currently contains the full 3 part string 'RANDOMSTRING1 - RANDOMSTRING2 - RANDOMSTRING3'
Regular Expression:
- string: ‍{Variable:Project Current}‍
- Operation: extract
- Pattern: (?<=- ).+(?= -)
- output: 'ClientID_trimmed' (variable)
- Info: this cleans the 3 part string and results in just the middle part, ie 'RANDOMSTRING2'
Add item to collection:
- target collection: ClientID_collection
- Index: value 0
- value: text: ‍{Variable:ClientID_trimmed}‍
- output: ClientID_collection
Get item from collection:
- target collection: ClientID_collection
- index: value 0
- output: ClientID_collectionvariable

I'd be grateful if you could cast your eyes over it and tell me if I've got a step wrong or out of order please! Of course let me know if I can provide more info

Many thanks

Userlevel 4

Hi Kevyn Williams‌

I think you have to many steps. the output variable from the Regular Expression should be a collection variable.

Then just use the Get item from collection.

I have just tested this and have completed what you want in 2 steps. You can add the input text of the regular expression to be the Current Item: Project value. Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with storing it in a variable first.