Regular Expression to Capture each line of 'anything', for as many lines available

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hi,

I'm using the Search Variable Using Regular Expression and while my current regex is 'working', it only works for Variables (text files) that have a specific number of lines, and I have some files that have less or more lines.

Basically I am importing a text file with multiple lines. I need to capture each individual line to a unique capture group which then will save 'capture groups to Variables in the Action.

Here's an examples of the Text File:

IP
Test
Open
Genre
00:49

Dm
112BPM

Some lines may be blank, and while this file has 8 lines, some may have only 6 lines.

This regular expression will work, but only for 8 lines. If I add another blank line it won't work. If I remove any single line, it won't work.

(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)

To be clear, this needs to have 8 total capture groups (for the KM Action), but it still needs to work even if there are 'less than 8 lines' in the text file.

Here's the action:

image

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

1 Like
3

May I ask why you are using this approach, of saving every line to a KM Variable?

Without knowing your objective or complete workflow, it might make more sense to use a For Each action with a Lines collection from a file. Something like this:

image

Questions?

1 Like
4

OK, I think I misread you for my above reply. Try this RegEx:
(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*)\R\h*(.*?)\R\h*(.*?)\R?\h*((?:.+)?)\R?\h*((?:.+)?)

For details, see: regex101: build, test, and debug regex

Example KM Search Actions

image

Let us know if this works for you.

1 Like
5

Hi, yeah I uploaded an image of the Action I'm using to my original post - basically what you just posted.

Your regex definitely works for 6-8 lines, but is there a way to modify it for anywhere between maybe 4 - 8 lines? It's possible that I won't ever have just 4 lines, but I'm just trying to cover my bases now just in case.

Thanks so much!

6

Should be. The key is the pattern I used for the last two lines:
\R?\h*((?:.+)?)

You should be able to use that for the preceding lines as well.
Test it out using regex101: build, test, and debug regex

7

Yeah it looks like this works (repeated multiple times):

\R?\h*((?:.+)?)

But on regex101.com it gives me a set of Matches - "Match 1" and then a set of blank matches "Match 2", any idea why?

Also, I can just repeat this 8 times, but isn't there a shorthand? I tried a few different things and it didn't work:

(\R?\h*((?:.+)?)){8}

Thanks again for your help!

8

I don't know if this will work -- you'll just have to experiment! :wink:

{8} means exactly 8 times.

The syntax is:
{min,max}, so you might try:
{1,8}

Haven't tried that with optional CGs, so I don't know if it will work or not.

If you find a solution, please post back here so all can benefit.

1 Like
9 
\R?\h*((?:.+)?)

This works but I have made some changes and have a new issue. I changed the search data and I only want to capture the data after the colon + space, so for Volume: I just want '200'. I have tried modifying the regex and I just can't seem to crack this one and still keep the number of lines variable. Any ideas?

See: https://regex101.com/r/7NmClN/1

10

You might try this. I only gave it very limited testing, but it seems to work when tested at the end:
\R?\h*(?:\w+\: )?((?:.+)?)

11

THANK YOU so much! This works, I just added one 'period' for when the Heading is two words like 'Music Reference: ' etc.

\R?\h*(?:\w.+\: )?((?:.+)?)

Much appreciated! I worked on this for hours over multiple days and could not crack it!

1 Like