Maybe some regex-Master can solve my problem.
I have a big list with many addresses with no seperators( , ; ).
The address string contains following Information:
The first group is the street name
The second group is the street number
The third group is the zipcode (optional)
The last group is the town name (optional)
As you can see on the image above the last two test strings are not matching.
I need the last two regex groups to be optional and the third group should be either 4 or 5 digits.
I tried (\d{4,5}) for allowing 4 and 5 digits. But this only works halfways as you can see here: https://regex101.com/r/ZurqHh/1
(This sometimes mixes the street number and zipcode together)
I also tried (?:\d{5})? to make the third and fourth group optional. But this destroys my whole group layout...
https://regex101.com/r/EgxeMy/1
This is my current regex:
/^([a-zäöüÄÖÜß\s\d.,-]+?)\s*([\d\s]+(?:\s?[-|+\/]\s?\d+)?\s*[a-z]?)?\s*(\d{5})\s*(.+)?$/im
Try it out yourself:
https://regex101.com/r/zC8NCP/1
My brain is only farting at this moment and i can't think straight anymore.
Please help me fix this problem so i can die in peace.
You can use
^(.*?)(?:\s+(\d+(?:\s*[-|+\/]\s*\d+)*\s*[a-z]?\b))?(?:\s+(\d{4,5})(?:\s+(.*))?)?$
See the regex demo (note all \s are replaced with \h to only match horizontal whitespaces).
Details:
^ - start of string
(.*?) - Group 1: any zero or more chars other than line break chars
(?:\s+(\d+(?:\s*[-|+\/]\s*\d+)*\s*[a-z]?\b))? - an optional non-capturing group matching
\s+ - one or more whitespaces
(\d+(?:\s*[-|+\/]\s*\d+)*\s*[a-z]?\b) - Group 2:
\d+ - one or more digits
(?:\s*[-|+\/]\s*\d+)* - zero or more sequences of zero or more whitespaces, -, +, | or /, zero or more whitespaces, one or more digits
\s* - zero or more whitespaces
[a-z]?\b - an optional lowercase ASCII letter and a word boundary
(?:\s+(\d{4,5})\b(?:\s+(.*))?)? - an optional non-capturing group matching
\s+ - one or more whitespaces
(\d{4,5}) - Group 3: four or five digits
(?:\s+(.*))? - an optional sequence of one or more whitespaces and then any zero or more chars other than line break chars as many as possible
$ - end of string.
Please note that the (?:\s+(.*))? optional group must be inside the (?:\s+(\d{4,5})...)? group to work.
It is difficult to parse addresses because we are halfway between formatted text and natural language. Here is a pattern that tries as much as possible to reduce the number of optional parameters to succeed with the examples offered without asking too much to the regex engine. To do this, I mainly rely on character classes, atomic groups, and a relatively accurate description of the street names. Obviously, all the examples of the question cannot be representative of reality and characters could be added or removed from the classes to deal with new cases. Nevertheless, the structure of this pattern is a good starting point.
~
^
(?<strasse> [\pL\d-]+ \.? (?> \h+ [\pL\d-]+ \.? )*? ) \h*
(?<nummer> \b (?> \d+ | [-+/\h]+ | [a-z] \b )*? )
(?: \h+ (?<plz> \d{4,5} )
\h+ (?<stadt> .+ ) )?
$
~mxui
demo
Note that in the above link you can also see a previous version of this pattern with a more accurate description of the street number (a bit more efficient but longer).
Related
An excellent "very close" answer at
Remove words less than 3 chars
with DEMO
where Regex
\b([a-z]{1,2})\b
removes all words less than 3 chars.
But how to reset this demo vise versa ? to remove all words NOT EXACTLY EQUAL 3 chars ?
We can catch word where exactly 3 chars by
\b([a-z]{3})\b
but how to tell regex - remove all other words what are NOT equal to 3 ?
So in regex demo ref above should leave only word 'and'
Use alternatives to match either 1-2 or 4+ letters.
\b(?:[a-z]{1,2}|[a-z]{4,})\b
Another variation with a negative lookbehind asserting not 3 chars to the left
\b[a-z]+\b(?<!\b[a-z][a-z][a-z]\b)
Regex demo
Or with a skip fail approach for 3 chars a-z:
\b[a-z]{3}\b(*SKIP)(*F)|\b[a-z]+\b
Regex demo
I think maybe:
\b(?![a-z]{3}\b)[a-z]+\b
Matching:
\b - A word-boundary.
(?![a-z]{3}\b) - A negative lookahead to avoid three-letter words.
[a-z]+\b - Any 1+ letter-words (greedy) us to a word boundary.
Another trick is to use a capture group to match what you want:
\b(?:[a-z]{3}|([a-z]+))\b
\b - A word-boundary
(?:[a-z]{3}|([a-z]+)) - A nested capture group inside alternation to first neglect three alpha chars and capture any 1+ words (greedy).
\b - A word-boundary
With an optional group of letters with at least 2 characters and a possessive quantifier:
\b[a-z]{1,2}+(?:[a-z]{2,})?\b
demo
This approach is based on a calculation trick and on backtracking.
In other words: 2 + x = 3 with x > 1 has no solution.
If I had written \b[a-z]{1,2}(?:[a-z]{2,})?\b (with or without the last \b it isn't important), when the regex engine reaches the position at the start of a three letters word [a-z]{1,2} would have consumed the two first letters, but as an extra character is needed for the last word boundary to succeed, the regex engine doesn't have an other choice to backtrack the {1,2} quantifier. With one backtracking step, the [a-z]{1,2} would have consumed only one character and (?:[a-z]{2,})?\b could have succeeded. But by making this quantifier possessive I forbid this backtracking step. Since, for a three letters word, [a-z]{1,2}+ takes 2 characters and [a-z]{2,} needs at least 2 letters, the pattern fails.
Use the word boundary and force to fail with the possessive quantifier:
\b(?:[a-z]{3}\b)?+[a-z]+
demo
This one plays also with an impossible assertion: three letters followed by a word boundary, can't be followed by a letter.
One more time, with a three letter words, once the three letters are consumed by [a-z]{3}, the possessive quantifier ?+ forbids to backtrack and [a-z]+ makes the pattern fail.
Force to fail with 3 letters and skip them using a backtracking control verb:
\b[a-z]{3}\b(*SKIP)^|[a-z]+
demo
I need to match a series of strings that:
Contain at least 3 numbers
0 or more letters
0 or 1 - (not more)
0 or 1 \ (not more)
These characters can be in any position in the string.
The regular expression I have so far is:
([A-Z0-9]*[0-9]{3,}[\/]?[\-]?[0-9]*[A-Z]*)
This matches the following data in the following cases. The only one that does not match is the first one:
02ABU-D9435
013DFC
1123451
03323456782
ADS7124536768
03SDFA9433/0
03SDFA9433/
03SDFA9433/1
A41B03423523
O4AGFC4430
I think perhaps I am being too prescriptive about positioning. How can I update this regex to match all possibilities?
PHP PCRE
The following would not match:
01/01/2018 [multiple / or -]
AA-AA [no numbers]
Thanks
One option could be using lookaheads to assert 3 digits, not 2 backslashes and not 2 times a hyphen.
(?<!\S)(?=(?:[^\d\s]*\d){3})(?!(?:[^\s-]*-){2})(?!(?:[^\s\\]*\\){2})[A-Z0-9/\\-]+(?!\S)
About the pattern
(?<!\S) Assert what is on the left is not a non whitespace char
(?=(?:[^\d\s]*\d){3}) Assert wat is on the right is 3 times a whitespace char or digit
(?!(?:[^\s-]*-){2}) Assert what is on the right is not 2 times a whitespace char a hyphen
(?!(?:[^\s\\]*\\){2}) Assert what is on the right is not 2 times a whitespace char a backslash
[A-Z0-9/\\-]+ Match any of the listed 1+ times
(?!\S) Assert what is on the right is not a non whitespace char
Regex demo
Your patterns can be checked with positive/negative lookaheads anchored at the start of the string:
at least 3 digits -> find (not necessarily consecutive) 3 digits
no more than 1 '-' -> assert absence of (not necessarily consecutive) 2 '-' characters
no more than 1 '/' -> assert absence of (not necessarily consecutive) 2 '/' characters
0 or more letters -> no check needed.
If these conditions are met, any content is permitted.
The regex implementing this:
^(?=(([^0-9\r\n]*\d){3}))(?!(.*-){2})(?!(.*\/){2}).*$
Check out this Regex101 demo.
Remark
This solution assumes that each string tested resides on its own line, ie. not just being separated by whitespace.
In case the strings are separated by whitespace, choose the solution of user #TheFourthBird (which essentially is the same as this one but caters for the whitespace separation)
You can test the condition for both the hyphen and the slash into a same lookahead using a capture group and a backreference:
~\A(?!.*([-/]).*\1)(?:[A-Z/-]*\d){3,}[A-Z/-]*\z~
demo
detailled:
~ # using the tild as pattern delimiter avoids to escape all slashes in the pattern
\A # start of the string
(?! .* ([-/]) .* \1 ) # negative lookahead:
# check that there's no more than one hyphen and one slash
(?: [A-Z/-]* \d ){3,} # at least 3 digits
[A-Z/-]* # eventual other characters until the end of the string
\z # end of the string.
~
To better understand (if you are not familiar with): these three subpatterns start from the same position (in this case the beginning of the string):
\A
(?! .* ([-/]) .* \1 )
(?: [A-Z/-]* \d ){3,}
This is possible only because the two first are zero-width assertions that are simple tests and don't consume any character.
I am trying to match five substrings in each block of text (there are 100 blocks total).
I am matching 99% of the blocks of text, but with a few errors regarding groups 3 and 4.
Here is a demo link: https://regex101.com/r/cW2Is3/4
Group 3 is "parts of speech", and group 4 is an English translation.
In the first block of text, det, pro should all be in group 3, and then the; him, her, it, them should be in group 4.
The same issue occurs again in the third block of text.
Group 3 should be adj, det, nm, pro and Group 4 should be a, an, one.
This is my pattern:
([0-9]+)\s+(\w+(?:, \w+)?)\s+(\N+?)\s+(\H.+).*?\r?\n•\s+([\s\S]*?)\s+[0-9]+\s\|.*\s*
Voici...
/^(\d+) +(\w+) +([acdefijlmnoprtv()]+(?:, ?[acdefijlmnoprtv()]+)*) +([\S\s]+?)\n\x{2022} +([\S\s]+?)\n\d+ \| [-\dn]+\s*/gum
Demo Link
I have done my best to optimize the pattern. I shaved nearly 10,000 steps off of your pattern and reached 100 matches as desired.
Starting anchor ^ is used to identify start of each block (Efficiency / Accuracy)
\d is used instead of [0-9] (Brevity)
\s is replaced with a literal space where applicable (Brevity)
A character class of specific letters and parentheses was used in place of \w for capture group 3. (Efficiency) *could be replaced with [\w()] for brevity with a loss of efficiency
The bullet was specified using the literal \x{2022} (Personal preference)
Character class used on trailing characters of each block [-\dn]. (Efficiency / Accuracy)
When you have to describe a long string with many parts, the first reflex is to use the free-space mode (x modifier) and named groups (even if named groups aren't very useful in a replacement context, they help to make the pattern readable and more easy to debug):
~^
(?<No> [0-9]+ ) \h+
(?<word> \pL+ ) \h+
(?<type> [\pL()]+ (?: , \h* [\pL()]+ )* ) \h+
(?<wd_tr> [^•]* [^•\s] ) \h* \R
• \h*
(?<sent_fr> [^–]* [^\s–] ) \s* – \s*
(?<sent_eng> .* (?:\R .*)*? ) \h* \R
(?<num1> [0-9]+ ) \h* \| \h*
(?<num2> .*\S )
~xum
demo
There are no magic recipe to build a pattern for a string with a blurred format. All you can do is to be the most constrictive at the beginning and to add flexibility when you encounter cases that don't match.
I'd like to match strings that are comprised of:
First Iniitial
Middle Name
Last Name + optional suffix (Jr. Sr. III, etc.)
and not match string that are comprised of a First Name + Last Name and suffix.
I have the following sample data:
H. Graham Motion
T. James Kelly
J. Palacios Moli
A. Chadwick Box
H. Graham Motion III
T. James Kelly, Jr.
H. Graham Motion II
V. Barboza Jr.
I would like to match all of the strings except the last.
Here is what I have for a regular expression:
^(\w\.)(\s\w+\s[\sI\,\sJSr.]{0,5})*(\w+[\sI\,\sJSr.]{0,5})$
but it not working. You can see the regular expression here at regex101.
I've tweaked your expression a bit and come up with ^(\w\.)\s(\w+)\s(\w+(?:,?\s(?:I{0,5}|Jr\.|Sr\.))?)$. For the sake of sanity and clarity, I moved the \s out of the capture groups, since I assume you don't define a middle name as a string of word characters with a leading and trailing space. I think I kept the spirit of your definition of a last name + suffix.
(Very verbose) Explanation:
^ start
( 1st group (1st initial)
\w\. one word char followed by a period
)
\s one whitespace char
( 2nd group (middle name)
\w+ 1 or more word chars
)
\s one whitespace char
( 3rd group (last name + optional suffix)
\w+ 1 or more word chars
(?: non-capturing group (optional suffix)
,? 0 or 1 commas
\s one whitespace char
(?:I{1,5}|Jr\.|Sr\.) one of: 1-5 I chars, "Jr." or "Sr."
)? match suffix group 0 or 1 times
)
$ end
You'll notice I made the change from I{0,5} to I{1,5} because 0 characters doesn't seem like much of a suffix to me. However I don't see a lot of people with the suffix IIII or IIIII so you may want to change it to I{0,3}|IV|V. You may also want to change the optional comma after the last name to require it before Jr./Sr. and disallow it before a Roman numeral.
Also, remember that \w also matches underscores and digits! And that \s matches most whitespace characters, and not just a regular space.
I want to write php regular expression to find uppercase string , which can also contain one number and spaces, from text.
For example from this text "some text to contain EXAM PL E 7STRING uppercase word" I want to get string- EXAM PL E 7STRING ,
found string should start and end only with uppercase, but in the middle, without uppercase letters can also contain(but not necessarily ) one number and spaces. So, regex should match any of these patterns
1) EXAMPLESTRING - just uppercase string
2) EXAMP4LESTRING - with number
3) EXAMPLES TRING - with space
4) EXAM PL E STRING - with more than one spaces
5) EXAMP LE4STRING - with number and space
6) EXAMP LE 4ST RI NG - with number and spaces
and with total length string should be equal or more than 4 letters
I wrote this regex '/[A-Z]{1,}([A-Z\s]{2,}|\d?)[A-Z]{1,}/', that can find first 4 patterns, but I can not figure it out to match also the last 2 patterns.
Thanks
There is a neat trick called a lookahead. It just checks what is following after the current position. That can be used to check for multiple conditions:
'/(?<![A-Z])(?=(?:[A-Z][\s\d]*){3}[A-Z])(?!(?:[A-Z\s]*\d){2})[A-Z][A-Z\s\d]*[A-Z]/'
The first lookaround is actually a lookbehind and checks that there is no previous uppercase letter. This is just a little speedup for strings that would fail the match anyway. The second lookaround (a lookahead) checks that there are at least four letters. The third one checks that there are no two digits. The rest just matches then a string of the allowed characters, starting and ending with an uppercase letter.
Note that in the case of two digits this will not match at all (instead of matching everything up to the second digit). If you do want to match in such a case, you could incorporate the "1 digit" rule into the actual match instead:
'/(?<![A-Z])(?=(?:[A-Z][\s\d]*){3}[A-Z])[A-Z][A-Z\s]*\d?[A-Z\s]*[A-Z]/'
EDIT:
As Ωmega pointed out, this will cause problems if there are less then four letters before the second digit, but more after that. This is actually quite tough, because the assertion needs to be, that there are more than 4 letters before the second digit. Since we do not know where the first digit occurs in those four letters, we have to check for all possible positions. For this I would do away with the lookaheads altogether, and simply provide the three different alternatives. (I will keep the lookbehind as an optimization for non-matching parts.)
'/(?<![A-Z])[A-Z]\s*(?:\d\s*[A-Z]\s*[A-Z]|[A-Z]\s*\d\s*[A-Z]|[A-Z]\s*[A-Z][A-Z\s]*\d?)[A-Z\s]*[A-Z]/'
Or here with added comments:
'/
(?<! # negative lookbehind
[A-Z] # current position is not preceded by a letter
) # end of lookbehind
[A-Z] # match has to start with uppercase letter
\s* # optional spaces after first letter
(?: # subpattern for possible digit positions
\d\s*[A-Z]\s*[A-Z]
# digit comes after first letter, we need two more letters before last one
| # OR
[A-Z]\s*\d\s*[A-Z]
# digit comes after second letter, we need one more letter before last one
| # OR
[A-Z]\s*[A-Z][A-Z\s]*\d?
# digit comes after third letter, or later, or not at all
) # end of subpattern for possible digit positions
[A-Z\s]* # arbitrary amount of further letters and whitespace
[A-Z] # match has to end with uppercase letter
/x'
That gives the same result on Ωmega's lengthy test input.
I suggest to use regex pattern
[A-Z][ ]*(\d)?(?(1)(?:[ ]*[A-Z]){3,}|[A-Z][ ]*(\d)?(?(2)(?:[ ]*[A-Z]){2,}|[A-Z][ ]*(\d)?(?(3)(?:[ ]*[A-Z]){2,}|[A-Z][ ]*(?:\d|(?:[ ]*[A-Z])+[ ]*\d?))))(?:[ ]*[A-Z])*
(see this demo).
[A-Z][ ]*(?:\d(?:[ ]*[A-Z]){2}|[A-Z][ ]*\d[ ]*[A-Z]|(?:[A-Z][ ]*){2,}\d?)[A-Z ]*[A-Z]
(see this demo)