Un-stripping a string of characters

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hi folks,

I want to turn a string of 16 digits, such as 1234567891234567

into this: 1234-5678.9-12345.67

The actual digits will change each time, but the punctuation pattern stays the same. Can it be done using only KM actions or regular expressions? I’m a beginner at both, but I have no understanding of Applescript or any other scripting language.

2

You can use regular expressions for this with a search and replace variable or clipboard to change the text:

Search for: (\d\d\d\d)(\d\d\d\d)(\d)(\d\d\d\d\d)(\d\d)

This isn’t the most elegant way to write it, but is the easiest to understand. Basically looks for a number and groups them into the pattern length you need.

Replace with: $1-$2.$3-$4.$5

Replaces the matched numbers above with the same captured digits but with the special characters inserted now.

You could set up a KM macro:

  1. Keystroke ⌘-X (to cut the text into the clipboard)
  2. Search and replace the clipboard using the regular expression as above
  3. Keystroke ⌘-V (to paste the next text back into place)
1 Like
3

Hey There,

Easy enough.

Find:

(\d{4})(\d{4})(\d{1})(\d{5})(\d{2})

Replace:

$1-$2.$3-$4.$5

Using enumeration in the regular expression makes it easier to tell at a glance how many digits are in each segment.

-ccs

1 Like
4

Thanks, Michael and ccs. That works perfectly. I had kind of figured out how to find the groups of digits, but I was stuck on how to do the replacement – I didn’t know you could refer back to each group with a $ or backslash. Appreciate the examples!

–Bill G

5

Whups. I see I used backslashes to refer to the capture groups. This is proper syntax for BBEdit and TextWrangler but not KM. I’ve corrected my oversight in the forum post.

6

Half the fun of regex is keeping track of all the various flavors for each app.