Issues with the replaceAll function. How can I remove special characters [, ], " from string?

[John Izquierdo]

Hi,

I'm I'm trying to remove specific characters '[', ']', and '"' (quotation marks) from a 'value' in the description. Below is the value.

Additional Hardware Selected: ["laptop dock", "laptop", "keyboard", "mouse"]

I'm first using create variable function in an automation to create a variable with the name {{msformAddHardware}} and the value {{issue.description.match("Additional Hardware Selected: *(.*)")}}.

Then, I'm using the Audit Log function with the smart-value {{msformAddHardware.replaceAll("[\\[\\]\"]", "")}} but the Audit log shows the log function is empty.

My purpose for this is, in the automation, to use the created variable to set the value for a multi-select custom field.

Please help. Thanks! 

[William Calesco · Accepted solution]

Hi John,

I know that character Classes work for replaceAll().

If you are getting this "[\\[\\]\"]" (isn`t there an extra " ?) from different parts of the text,

try chainning the characters, for example:

{{issue.summary.replaceAll("[\\]", "").replaceAll("\", "")}}

 and so on. Start with the first character, test, and then progress adding the others.

[John Izquierdo]

Hi, William

The Log Action was returning the error below.

Failed to get value for msformAddHardware.replaceall("[\\]", ""): {{msformAddHardware.replaceall("[\\]", "")}}

I ended up using: value {{msformAddHardware.replaceAll("[\\[\\]\"]", "")}} to create a new variable "addHard". Then, created a new variable "selectHardware" with the value {{addHard.trim()}}.

I might have over done it with all the created variables but nonetheless.

Then, with in the "Edit" function I used the following JSON.

{
"fields": {
"customfield_12487": [
{{#selectHardware.split(",")}}
{"value": "{{.}}"}{{^last}},{{/last}}
{{/}}
]
}
}

[Kalyan Sattaluri · Accepted solution]

Hello @John Izquierdo 

Yes, as @William Calesco  has mentioned, try chaining the "replace" function to replace one at a time.

Once you have a clean list separated by commas in your variable (which is still text), please check the method demonstrated by @Bill Sheboy in below post on how to format your text to JSON so you can set/update your field accordingly.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-questions/Converting-list-to-JSON-object/qaq-p/2551363

[John Izquierdo]

Thanks, Kalyan!

I was still confused reading that post (still kind of new to Jira and getting familiar with smart-values but don't know a lick of JSON), thankfully we're working with some devs from OnRamp who provided the same solution and was able to explain it/how it works.

[Kalyan Sattaluri]

Yes, It takes a couple of tries to absorb how to iterate a list and format the JSON to get it so you can update corresponding fields.

And that method of @Bill Sheboy  is one of my absolute favorites I have ever seen. Its just such a simple yet, out of the box solution that my mind was blown away and i am still impressed, lol.

For reference, if you look at below Jira KB article on "how else" it could have been achieved, its just confusing and feels round about. That's what i admire about that solution.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/converting-a-csv-string-to-a-json-object-array-when-json-smart-value-functions-do-not-work-in-an-automation-rule-1189506509.html

BTW, can I please ask you to accept @William Calesco answer as well, his solution was the correct one so folks researching in the future can benefit by quickly getting to the answer. Thanks!

[John Izquierdo]

Ah! I might have been thinking of a different community post with a similar question to mine. I didn't try, but still don't fully understand the article you linked, I'll have to stare at it for a while and test it out and fail a couple of time. lol

I explained what method I ended up using in a reply to @William Calesco... I might have used the roundabout way of doing it tbh.

Once I figure out and successfully use the method provided in that article I will be sure to update my automation so it doesn't feel like a mess.

Thanks again!