Add string literals as a parameter to replaceAll

[John Colosi]

I want to do this:

• issue.description.replaceAll("||" + myParam + "|.*", "aReplacementString")

This would replace a certain table row in the description. The row that begins with myParam in the first cell. A table row looks like this:

• ||Column1|Field A|FieldB|FieldC

But the problem is that you can't add strings together as a parameter (using the plus sign). You can append a string onto an existing value (using concat), but you can't prepend.

I considered using reverse/concat/reverse/concat, which looks ridiculous. Ultimately I did this:

• issue.summary.left(0).concat("\|\|").concat(myParam).concat("\|.*")

This is probably equally ridiculous. I'm using the first 0 characters of the summary (a field I know exists) to create a temporary variable I can use to create my regex. I'm using the server version of Jira so I can't create a variable. I'm not sure what the right way to do this is. Any help appreciated.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @John Colosi 

First, I want to note that is a clever work-around for no Create Variable action in the Server/Data Center version of automation rules.

Other approaches would be to store your search expression for the replaceAll() call in an entity property (or custom field), re-fetch, and then use that directly.  That would be slower but it might allow other regular expression content, possibly excluded by the smart value text function handling.

Kind regards,
Bill