Smart Value Escaped Characters

Question

I was trying to split a string that was | delimited. Turns out .split("|") broke it into a list of individual characters. Instead .split("\|") had the intended effect.

So | requires an escape character. What other characters require escaping? Add what you have found in the comments.

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Fede B.

The parsing order can cause symptoms like that.  One workaround is to use created variables.  For example:

* action: create variable* name: varSearchValue
* value: some text containing {{

* action: create variable* name: varReplacementValue
* value: some replacement text

* action: something needing the replace

{{issue.description.replace(varSearchValue, varReplacementValue)}}

This also helps when using regular expressions, although there are extra steps to escape the characters.

Kind regards,
Bill

Fede B. · Answer

Hi, a bit late, but I'd like to add that I noticed that replace() works fine when searching for single { but returns error when searching for double {{

I bet it's because the double curly creates confusion with smart variables delimiters.

Escaping the double curly doesn't seem to resolve the error...

Best regards

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Aron Kuch

That is an interesting question, and I also find the escape-needing characters for rules (with and without the Atlassian implementation of regular expressions) are not documented...or at least not on the automation documentation pages :^)

I wrote a quick test rule, using most of the printable characters in a created variable to drive an advanced branch, using your split("|") technique, and then used each one to split the very same string without escaping.  These are the ones which did not work at all (and so probably need to be escaped):

?
$
'
(
)
*
+
-
.
?
|

And these seem context-dependent for the string being split:

"

The remainder all seemed to work, but I would test further if I needed this for a production rule.  If you try the same test, please post what you find.  Thanks!

Kind regards,
Bill