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Regex in automation problems

daniel.jones

Hello, really stumped.

I am on Data Center version 10.3.12

Long story short, I have need to extract a partial string from a set of text from a webhook. I am trying to use native automation vs. Scriptrunner due to some organizational limitations.

I have tried various regex options but apparently DC does not support a lot of them like match and extract. Also, I know JIRA stores variables as strings and you have to convert them to numbers.

So what I was able to do is get the index of the start of the string I want to extract, stored that as a variable, then figured I can use the index value plus notation to get the next 5 characters that I want. But I am still having issues.

I am debugging by writing to the log, but while the automation does not fail or error, nothing is getting writing to the log. It seems the asNumber may not be working either.

It is probably a brain cramp on my end with a simple fix, but I am not able to see it.

Accepted answers

Rudy Holtkamp

Hi @daniel.jones ,

Could you post an example of the data and an example of what you want to extract?

All comments

Rudy Holtkamp

Hi @daniel.jones ,

Could you post an example of the data and an example of what you want to extract?

daniel.jones

HI @Rudy Holtkamp

the string will look like this

[Feature][MATRIX][Code 2025.4.5][ABC-62088] Migration Service – CI/CD Setup for EU

I need to get the JIRA key, ABC-62088. or at least the 5 digit number from that

daniel.jones

also, if it helps, the variable dashIndex is this

{{webhookData.pullRequest.title.indexOf("ABC-")}}

and issueTitle is this

they both work and produce what is expected

Rudy Holtkamp

Ok, suppose you have the string you mentioned in a var called 'string'

string: [Feature][MATRIX][Code 2025.4.5][ABC-62088] Migration Service – CI/CD Setup for EU

Then you create a new var called myKey:

myKey: {{string.match("\[((?<!([A-Z]{1,10})-?)[A-Z]+-\d+)\]")}}

This will output ABC-62088, as you can see below. The regex will search for a Jira key within square brackets, so if another key is located in text at the end, you still get the correct key.

daniel.jones

Update-I gave up on match or extract, it seems they dont work in my Datacenter version? Glad if someone can prove me wrong.
But substring does work, so I updated my script.

I create a variable called keyStart with {{webhookData.pullRequest.title.indexOf("ABC-")}} and it produces the result desired.

Then I created a variable called keyEnd with {{#=}}{{webhookData.pullRequest.title.indexOf("ABC-")}} +9 {{/}}

This works as the key is always 9 digits-ABD then a dash, then 5 numbers

But when I try substring I am running into issues. If I hard code with numbers it works, but there is not a defined start and end every time, it will vary. So I wanted to use the variables for the start and end of the substring.

Works {{webhookData.pullRequest.title.substring(5,14)}}

None of the below work

{{webhookData.pullRequest.title.substring({{keyStart}},{{keyEnd}})}}

{{issueTitle.substring({{keyStart.asNumber}},{{keyEnd.asNumber}})}}

Rudy Holtkamp

These are never going to work:

{{webhookData.pullRequest.title.substring({{keyStart}},{{keyEnd}})}}

{{issueTitle.substring({{keyStart.asNumber}},{{keyEnd.asNumber}})}}

Within {{ }} you should not use {{ }} again. So the bold ones are not going to work.

But I guess you already knew that.

I don't know why, but sometimes it helps to create a var and then use the functions. So create a var called title with {{webhookData.pullRequest.title}}, then use
{{title.substring(keyStart.asNumber,keyEnd.asNumber)}}

Brian Eshult_3faejd

@daniel.jones
I was running into problems using regex functions in automation as well. Also in 10.3

I was able to get it to work by using a specific regex and variable formatting. Details here. Hope this is helpful for the future.

Ludwig Einicke

Hi @daniel.jones The substring function seems to have issues with executing the dot(.)-Notation properly.

I am half-guessing, but this would mean the direct input gets properly recognized as a number while the input from variables either arives as string or does not execute because the function sees the dot and throws a tantrum. Which seems to fit your case.

You could try using a lookupTable instead of a variable - they tend to preserve data formats better than variables. And by some miracle, the lookupTable.get(...) function gets recocnised inside a wide variety of otherwise snobby functions.

If this doesn't work, you could try to use the indexes you have to create some variables containing strings from your title before and after the number feed into substringBetween([...], [...}) which actually does accept string input from variables.

EDIT2: I apologize, this was already solved in another answer-thread. Well, if you ever dabble in variable handovers again, I send my best wishes and hope this input of mine helps.

I hope this helps,

Kind regards,

Ludwig

Edit: As mentioned, variables need to be given without additional curly brackets. Lets say you use two Variables {{myVarA}} containing KEY- and {{myVarB}} containing endofkey and have another Variable {{myString}} containing ThisIsATest KEY-12345789 endofkey you would use

-- Inputs:
{{myVarA}} value: [KEY-]
{{myVarB}} value: [endofkey]
{{myString}} value: [ThisIsATest KEY-12345789 endofkey]

-- Smart-Object with Functions:
{{myString.substringBetween(myVarA, myVarB)}}

-- Output:
[123456789 ]

to get the Output 123456789 (note that there is a whitespace at the end of the output). You could write that into another variable, and continue step by step or try doing everything directly at once:

-- Smart-Object with Functions:
{{myString.substringBetween(myVarA, myVarB).replace(" ","").asNumber.add(9)}}

-- Output:
[123456798] <- (hopefully) added 9 to the initial input (this will require some testing if it actually works)

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