Parsing Text with Conditional Regular Expressions in VBA

Question

I'm parsing large amounts of textual data using Regular Expressions in VBA within cells of an Excel document using Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5.

I can't figure out how to create a Regular Expression phrase that WILL match something that reads: "deploy", "deploying", "deployment" but NOT something that says specifically "redeploy". So far I've tried the below expressions, to no avail:

(^[rR][eE])([dD][eE][pP][lL][oO][yY])
(^[rR][eE])?([dD][eE][pP][lL][oO][yY])
.(^[rR][eE])([dD][eE][pP][lL][oO][yY])
*(^[rR][eE])([dD][eE][pP][lL][oO][yY])

Could anyone spot what I'm doing wrong? Or is this not possible given how Regex functions?

Basically, you want to match *deploy*, but not words containing *deploy* ? — Gawil, May 30 '17 at 15:12
`"\bdeploy\b"` matches the word exactly by requiring it be surrounded by boundaries if that's what your asking. Also `YourRegExp.IgnoreCase = True` — Alex K., May 30 '17 at 15:12
I'm looking to specifically exclude "redeploy". I would include "deploying", "deployment", etc. I apologize for the lack of clarity, OP has been updated. — Alex, May 30 '17 at 15:27

Gawil · Answer 1 · 2017-05-31T08:57:55.160

0

Try this regex :
redeploy\w*|(\w*deploy\w*)

The words you are looking for are in the first capturing group. It will capture every words containing deploy but not beginning with redeploy.

You can also try the code below (not tested) :

Dim searchStr As String
searchStr = "redeploy deploying redeployment deploy"
Dim regex As New VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp
Dim matches
regex.Pattern = "redeploy\w*|(\w*deploy\w*)"
regex.IgnoreCase = True
regex.Global = True
If regex.test(searchStr) Then
    Set matches = regex.Execute(searchStr)
    Dim match As Variant
    For Each match In matches
        Debug.Print match.Submatches(0)
    Next
End If

edited May 31 '17 at 08:57

answered May 30 '17 at 15:15

Gawil

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I'm looking to specifically exclude "redeploy". I would include "deploying", "deployment", etc. I apologize for the lack of clarity, OP has been updated. – Alex May 30 '17 at 15:28
VBA/VBScript does NOT support mode modification tokens within the regex. – Ron Rosenfeld May 30 '17 at 16:09
@Alex: I edited my answer, tell me if this is what you want – Gawil May 31 '17 at 08:58

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 30 '17 at 15:59

Use this:

>> Set r = New RegExp
>> r.IgnoreCase = True
>> r.Pattern = "\bdeploy"
>> For Each w In Split("redeploy deploy deploywhatever misdeploy")
>>     WScript.Echo w, CStr(r.Test(w))
>> Next
>>
redeploy Falsch
deploy Wahr
deploywhatever Wahr
misdeploy Falsch
>>

to try if "a word starting with 'deploy'" meets your spec.

Ron Rosenfeld · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-30T16:07:51.307

0

"(?!re)\b\S*deploy\S*"

will not match redeploy, but would match, for example misdeploy, as well as the various forms (deployment, deploying, etc)

If you can eliminate all the words that "prefix" deploy, then

"\bdeploy\S*"

would be simpler.

edited May 30 '17 at 16:07

answered May 30 '17 at 16:02

Ron Rosenfeld

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This is perfect, and looks to be supported by VB. Much appreciated! – Alex May 30 '17 at 17:02

Parsing Text with Conditional Regular Expressions in VBA

3 Answers3