Trying to extract date from description via regex

Question

I have a similar problem to this question: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Pulling-date-in-string-with-REGEX-from-Description-trying-to/qaq-p/2415519

My date field is in the middle of the Description.  It will be prepended with "Expected start date/effective date".  This is what it looks like:

Employee ID Number: N/A (Employee is a new-hire/rehire)

Expected start date/effective date: 2023-10-02

Is this a: N/A

This is my regular expression:

(?<=Expected start date\/effective date:\W*)(\d+[-]\d+[-]\d+)

here's where I want to put it:

{{issue.description.match(“(?<=Expected start date\/effective date:\W*)(\d+[-]\d+[-]\d+)")}}

Putting it in an automation doesn't catch it.  Regex testers tell me the regular expression is good.  What am I missing?

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Robert Wen_Cprime_

Please recall the match() function documentation about regular expressions says the "underlying implementation is based on Java's Pattern class", but it does not say what it actually does (and does not) support: https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-text-fields/#match--

My recommendations are:

* First use a split() command prior to the match, either on newlines or on some pattern text near what you want.  That will reduce the scope the match needs to hit, and help you see when there are multiple matches (because it will return a list).
* Use the simplest regular expression you can make that will do the job
* When in doubt, build up the expression slowly, writing intermediate results to the audit log until it works as desired

Kind regards,
Bill