Why does $1 work inside some tokens but not others?

Questions & Suggestions
1

Could someone explain to me why this doesn't do what it clearly is intended to do. Here's the simplest piece of code to demonstrate the problem:

image

It is intended to replace the leading digits of each line in some text or variable with a formatted version of the date corresponding to the leading number in each line.

The problem seems to be that it's not placing the value of $1 inside the ICUDateTimeFor token. It seems to be returning an empty string for $1 when used inside this token. I can place variables inside that token, and I can place $1 outside that token, but I can't place $1 inside that token.

The following page says that $1 and \1 can be used inside the %Calculate% token, so shouldn't they also be usable inside other tokens like %ICUDateTimeFor%? Why do some tokens work with $1 but others not?

https://wiki.keyboardmaestro.com/action/Search_and_Replace

2

I just had to hunt this down last night, and the answer is "it's designed to work that way." Here's Peter explaining why:

Basically, as I understand it, it's a decision made due to not being able to fully decide what $1 should be in a given expansion.

-rob.

3

I think that's a slightly different case -- a capture group inside a variable -- and the behaviour is documented on the Wiki.

I wonder if, for this case, the answer is on the "ICUDateTime Tokens" page:

Using Variables with These Date/Time Tokens

You can use any calculation in the numeric parameters, like the [amount of time] and [unit of time] fields.

@Airy -- try this:

image

Using

%ICUDateTimeFor%CALCULATE($1)%yyyy-MM-dd-hh-mm%,$2

...to coerce from text to numeric.

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4

Ah, sorry, my bad.

-rob.

5

I'm absolutely gobsmacked. You did it. I had read that wiki page several times but clearly I didn't understand parts of it. You have exceeded even my own expectations for your own genius, which is already very high.

6

As @Nige_S notes, the issue is that that section of the token is a numeric field, rather than a text field.

On the todo list is:

  • MATCH function to return regex group matches as numeric results.

Which, if implemented, would allow %ICUDateTime%MATCH(1)%…%. But as it is not implemented (yet), CALCULATE($1) is the correct solution.

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