Question

Need some help with a regular expression

Workflow

Updated May 10, 2019

asked on May 9, 2019

I have a Document name = LastName FirstName MiddleName I need to populate three matching fields in a Laserfiche template. So far using workflow Assign Token vales I have been able to parse out the LastName using \w+ I am having a problem finding a way to parse out FirstName then MiddleNmae. I have searched with Google and have not been able to find what I am looking for. Could use some assistance.

Thanks

John

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER

replied on May 9, 2019 • Show version history

You can try something like this

Note how the FullName token parses the entry name, but the other 3 tokens parse the previous FullName token.

The Regular Expression text:

FullName = ^([^_]+)
LastName = ^([^\s]+)
FirstName = ^[^\s]+\s+([^\s]+)
MiddleName = ([^\s]+)$

These expressions all assume that the name has 3 parts and no part has a space.

If you have a name like "Van Damme Jean Claude" or "Miller David Eldon Robert", the patterns will not work.

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Replies

replied on May 9, 2019

Is the Middle always followed by the Underscore?

You can start by getting just the name

FullName patern = ^([^_]+)

The above pattern grabs everything from the start of the input until it gets to an "_"

Then use the FullName token as the input for your other patterns.

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View 2 previous replies

replied on May 9, 2019

Oh that is good, gonna have to put that in my box of tricks.

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replied on May 9, 2019

Hi Travis there must be some misunderstanding We have the LastName and the First Name figured out it is the middle name I need assistance with Example

Doe John William_1

want it to return William. \S+$ returns William_1 with the above example. Need to loose the _1

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replied on May 9, 2019

Hello Jim,

In my other reply, I suggested you could use this:

([a-zA-Z]+)_?\d?$

This would get the middle name but would only work if the middle name only contained letters (So would not work on hyphenated names)

The example that Bert has supplied I feel is more elegant as it would clean up the input, and then you can use \S+$ to get the middle name.

Regards,

Travis

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SELECTED ANSWER

replied on May 9, 2019 • Show version history

You can try something like this

Note how the FullName token parses the entry name, but the other 3 tokens parse the previous FullName token.

The Regular Expression text:

FullName = ^([^_]+)
LastName = ^([^\s]+)
FirstName = ^[^\s]+\s+([^\s]+)
MiddleName = ([^\s]+)$

These expressions all assume that the name has 3 parts and no part has a space.

If you have a name like "Van Damme Jean Claude" or "Miller David Eldon Robert", the patterns will not work.

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replied on May 10, 2019

Thanks Bert that worked great. I can do simple things with regular expressions but when it comes to more complicated things I am lost. Thanks again for all your help.

John

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replied on May 9, 2019 • Show version history

Try this:

Using \S+ will return things like full hyphenated last names, where \w+ will only return the part of the name before the hyphen.

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replied on May 9, 2019

FirstName \s+[\S+] only returns first character of first name

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replied on May 9, 2019

John -

Those characters are parentheses, not brackets:

\s+(\S+)

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replied on May 9, 2019

Hi Jim is there anything I can add to the MiddleName regular expression that would disregard the _1 or anything that would follow?

Doe John William_1

Return: William

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replied on May 9, 2019

([a-zA-Z]+)_?\d?$

That should work for both

Doe John William_1

and

Doe John William

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replied on May 9, 2019

That works great I have one more request after the middle name it is followed by :Example

Doe John William_1 I would like to remove anything that follows the middle name.

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Need some help with a regular expression

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