Why is my Regex Match returning an array of results instead of one result?

[gjuffer]

I've created an automation rule that scans the description of an incoming issue for an email address via a regex match, then adds a comment with that email address.  The automation is set up like this:

The code looks like this:

{{issue.description.match("([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+\.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)")}}

This automation successfully finds the email address and adds it to the comment, but it repeats the email twice with a comma separation, such as: 

example@address.com, example@address.com

It seems like the match function is returning an array.  How do I return only a singular email address?  

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @gjuffer 

I hypothesize that is from how the email is put as markup in the description.  So if it is returning a list, you could get just one value by adding .first or .last to the end of that expression.

Kind regards,
Bill

[gjuffer]

@Bill Sheboy thanks for the quick answer - I followed the link but am unsure if I'm using the correct syntax.  I tried the following code and it did not work:

{{issue.description.match.first("([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+\.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)")}}

[Bill Sheboy]

Please move the first to the end; this makes it apply to the returned list from the match():

{{issue.description.match("([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+\.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)").first}}

[gjuffer]

That totally works, thank you very much for your help @Bill Sheboy !

[Bill Sheboy]

Awesome; I am glad to learn that helped you.

__Bill

[gjuffer]

Well, I found a pretty useful video on Youtube from Ravi Sagar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP90ckC29Kk

He suggested that you need to add .* before and after your regex.  This worked for me, but I can't say that I understand why.  The code that ended up working is as follows:

{{issue.description.match("(.*[a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+\.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+.*)")}}

Fascinating.  Looks like I need to learn more.