RegExMatch Help Topic is solved

[Monoxide3009]

Hello All,

I have been struggling with regexmatch for a few days; trying to research on the community sites, but I am still just as stuck as ever.

I am self taught, so if you could please explain with as much detail as you can, it will help me out a lot.

Goal:
I am trying to pull from a webpage using regexmatch (I have looked unto the HTML replaces, but that made even less sense to me). As it is right now, I have a script pulling all text from a webpage into a variable, then trying to use regex patterns to pull the data I want. I have one working replace, but someone else had provided it. I am trying to reverse it, and I get the concept, but I cant build a line on my own that works.

Example:
I am trying to pull flight details from an entire body of text. The text has a segment of "Flight/Vessel (text needed) Place of Loading" - I am trying to grab everything between these to text points. My biggest issue is determining how to match literal text.

I have a working regexmatch on this same body of text that looks like this:
pulling from: RANDOMtext Business (B1)
RegExMatch(BODY, "(?<=\()(.{2,2})(?=\))", SVC)

SVC = B1

This pulls B1 - the required text. I was given this line by someone else here in the community, but I have yet to be able to fully understand AHK regex. I am somewhat familiar with patterns, as I have used PERL regex before, I just cant quite grasp AHK.

If anyone is up to the challenge, could you please explain where I am going wrong, or what I need to do? The more "pieces" you explain, the better, as I will be adapting any answers provided to other pieces of my script.

Thanks in advance!

[swagfag]

for matching stuff between parens, your result is store in capture group 1:

Code: Select all

needle := "\(([^\)]+)"

\( ; match literal open-paren
	( ; start capture group 1
		[^\)]+ ; match anything that inst a close-paren
	) ; end capture group 1

[Monoxide3009]

I apologize, I do not think I stated the line well - Flight/Vessel ... Place of Loading - There are no parentheses or quotes on this line. I need everything between these two literal words/phrases in a huge body of text, this is just a small segment representing the data I need.

How do I match a literal word/phrase?

I keep seeing \btext\b to match exact text, but I have tried this and cant get it to work.

Pulled from another post:
You can use the anchor \b for word boundaries:

"\bonly these words\b"

I have tried things similar to RegExMatch(BODY, "\bFlight/Vessel\b(.*)\bPlace of Loading\b", FLT)
but it didnt work as expected

[swagfag]

i see.
this regex does exactly what youre expecting it to, that is grabbing everything between those 2 literal text limiters:

Code: Select all

RegExMatch(BODY, "\bFlight/Vessel\b(.*)\bPlace of Loading\b", FLT)

can u show how it's not doing what is expected of it?

otherwise, with lookarounds and no capturing groups: (?<=\bFlight/Vessel \b).*(?=\b Place of Loading\b)

[Monoxide3009]

Welp, after you responded saying this should work, I started to copy over my entire code with the examples I have... Only to stop and notice that my variable FTL and FLT is not the same... I had been using a different variable the entire time.

However, now that the variables are matched up and it is working better, I still have a quick additional question.

Using the text:

Flight/Vessel this is a test Place of Loading

I want to pull specifically - this is a test. Though the regex code is pulling this whole line. (RegExMatch(BODY, "\bFlight/Vessel\b(.*)\bPlace of Loading\b", FLT))

Here is my whole jenky testing code. I am just trying to manipulate the above line to pull only what is between those two phrases, currently it is pulling everything from Flight to Loading (including flight/vessel and place of loading).

Code: Select all

!h::
SetKeyDelay, 1
count++

if (count = "1")
{
MsgBox, 262144,, Select (click on) the MS Word window, then hit ok
WinGetTitle, WORD, A
Sleep, 250

MsgBox, 262144,, Select (click on) the Note Pad window, then hit ok
WinGetTitle, NOTE, A
Sleep, 250
}

WinActivate, %WORD%
Sleep, 50
Send, ^a
Sleep, 50
Send, ^c
Sleep, 50

HTML:=RegExReplace(clipboard,"\R")
Sleep, 100
clipboard = ;

; FLT:= "test"

WinActivate, %NOTE%
Sleep, 50
RegExMatch(HTML, "\bFlight/Vessel\b(.*)\bPlace of Loading\b", FLT)
Sleep, 50
Send, %FLT%

Return

EDIT: I think I found the solution. It looks like the variable FLT would be the whole pattern, while the parentheses are a subpattern listed consecutively (ie - FLT1, FLT2, etc depending on the number of (...) within the pattern). I think I am on the right track, correct me if I am wrong, or elaborate more if needed. Though I think you have answered my questions.

Thanks, Swag

[swagfag]

Yes, it was due to the capturing group, gj