Regex expression not working in Studio

[idoia.fernandez]

Hello, I am trying to extract various text items in between headers and built this expression in .NET Regex Tester, which has so far always worked the same as Studio. However, this time it is not returning any matches. Any idea as to what could be happening? Cheers

[Yoichi]

Hi,

It may be line break matter. Can you try to add ? just after \r as the following?

(?<=\r?\n.*:)(\r?\n.*)*?(?=\r?\n.*:)

Regards,

[Julian_Muhlbauer (Julian Mühlbauer)]

What are your options in testing? And are you using the same options in the studio?

[Julian_Muhlbauer (Julian Mühlbauer)]

Regular expressions (regex) are powerful tools for pattern matching in strings, and various options can modify how they behave. Here’s a breakdown of the regex options you’ve listed:

1. IgnoreCase (RegexOptions.IgnoreCase):
   This option makes the regex matching case-insensitive, meaning it does not differentiate between uppercase and lowercase letters. For example, the pattern /abc/ with this option would match “abc”, “Abc”, “aBc”, etc.

2. Multiline (RegexOptions.Multiline):
   Normally, the ^ and $ anchors in regex match the start and end of the whole string. However, with the Multiline option, these anchors also match the start and end of each line within the string. This is useful for processing multi-line input where line-specific matches are needed.

3. ExplicitCapture (RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture):
   Normally, every group in a regex (( ... )) captures its match, which can be recalled later. With ExplicitCapture, only named groups (those defined as (?<name>...)) capture their matches, and unnamed groups (just parentheses without a name) do not capture. This can make the regex more efficient if back-references to the groups are not needed.

4. Compiled (RegexOptions.Compiled):
   When set, this option compiles the regex into assembly language, which can significantly speed up its execution, especially if the regex is used repeatedly. However, there’s an initial overhead in compilation time.

5. Singleline (RegexOptions.Singleline):
   By default, the dot (.) in regex does not match newline characters. The Singleline option changes this behavior so that the dot matches any character, including newlines. This is useful when you want to allow patterns to span multiple lines.

6. IgnorePatternWhitespace (RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace):
   This option allows the regex to be spaced out for readability, ignoring unescaped whitespace (spaces, tabs, and newlines) in the pattern itself and allowing for comments in the pattern after a # symbol. For instance, a b #comment is treated as ab.

7. RightToLeft (RegexOptions.RightToLeft):
   This option reverses the direction in which the regex engine searches through the string, starting from the end and moving to the beginning. This can be helpful in certain contexts, such as parsing languages written from right to left.

8. ECMAScript (RegexOptions.ECMAScript):
   This option makes the regex conform to ECMAScript (JavaScript) standards, limiting the regex features to those available in JavaScript. This can be useful for ensuring compatibility across platforms that use JavaScript-style regex syntax.

9. CultureInvariant (RegexOptions.CultureInvariant):
   By default, regex matching can be affected by the culture settings of the system (for example, how characters are categorized or how case-insensitivity works). The CultureInvariant option makes the regex ignore cultural differences and behave consistently regardless of the system’s locale settings.

Each of these options tailors regex processing to specific needs, providing powerful flexibility in text processing and data validation tasks.

[idoia.fernandez]

still not finding any matches

[idoia.fernandez]

these are the options im using, my Studio has the same options as yours IgnoreCase and Compiled

[Julian_Muhlbauer (Julian Mühlbauer)]

How do you provide input in the studio? Can you send a screenshot?

[idoia.fernandez]

The input is a string containing the same text I put in the Regex tester

[idoia.fernandez]

This is the input text as seen from the locals section in debug mode

[Julian_Muhlbauer (Julian Mühlbauer)]

Could you please try this?

[Yoichi]

Hi,

Can you share the string as file using WriteTextFileActivity?

Regards,

[nils.kaper]

Hi @idoia.fernandez ,
You could try to create a workflow in Studio Web, provide the text and just let GenAI generate the Regex?
Otherwise: There is the possibility to test your regex with sample input text directly inside the activity. Did you try that out? Text would be directly highlighted if your Regex is correct

[ppr (Peter Preuss)]

feel free to use the debugging panels (e.g. immediate panel) for variable tracing / value setting, rnd and prototyping

Understanding the 6 Debugging Panels of UiPath in the easiest way possible! - News / Tutorials - UiPath Community Forum

[CheatSheet] - System.Text.RegularExpressions | RegEx

This CheatSheet introduces the basic use of regex functions. With further examples also special cases are presented. Introduction From the namespace System.Text.RegularExpressions following methods are offered: Regex.Match Regex.Matches Regex.isMatch Regex.Replace Regex.Split A simple usage for example would look like this: [grafik] Recommendation: add System.Text.RegularExpressions to the imports: [grafik] it allows to use the shortened statement, as the namespace part can be ommited…