topic Re: Search a pattern in a table in Application Development and Automation Discussions

Search a pattern in a table

Former Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:47:42 GMT

Dear REGEX gurus.

I have an internal table. I want to search for a pattern in it.

Simple example:

DATA: lv_str TYPE string.

DATA result_tab TYPE match_result_tab.

lv_str = ' testing regex pattern ' .

FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX 'tesreg*' IN lv_str "IGNORING CASE

RESULTS result_tab.

IF sy-subrc = 0.

WRITE: 'okay'.

ELSE.

WRITE: 'not okay'.

ENDIF.

But if I put REGEX '*tes' -> I get syntax error.

If I remove it, my results are not correct - nothing is found, when there is a text - testing regex which matches ''tesreg'.

What is going wrong here?

Basically I will make a pattern like this: concatenate 'IT_DATA' lv_num '*' into lv_pat. find all occurences of regex lv_pat in table lt_str ignoring case results ...

How to make it work because putting * in front of pattern gives syntax error - but I want it as there may be leading spaces.

and anyway, this regex is not working for me

Thanks in adv.

Re: Search a pattern in a table

former_member191735 — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:59:45 GMT

The check of the regular expression "tes+reg" resulted in an error in the

character offset 0. This could be caused by incorrect brackets, the

empty character sequence, or the use of an operator that is not

supported so far..

This should work if you change to

FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX 'tes+reg*' IN lv_str

RESULTS result_tab.

Remove * from first position. Check out the help for Valid regular expression and also for Character String Patterns.

Re: Search a pattern in a table

Former Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:11:35 GMT

Thanks Sampath, but already tried that and it does not work.

Re: Search a pattern in a table

Former Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:16:55 GMT

check the program DEMO_REGEX_TOY to find a regular expression you can use

Re: Search a pattern in a table

Former Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:30:51 GMT

Thanks Sebastian. But I know of this program and I could not find any expression meeting my needs although it sounds so simple

Already tried for 2 hours.. I guess it would be a minute's job for a REGEX expert.

Re: Search a pattern in a table

former_member191735 — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:49:32 GMT

Then try the following.

FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEx '((tes)|(reg))' IN lv_str IGNORING CASE

RESULTS result_tab.

Re: Search a pattern in a table

Former Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:53:10 GMT

Im not an expert either, but try replacing

FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '*tes*reg*' IN lv_str "IGNORING CASE

with

FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '.*tes.*reg.*' IN lv_str "IGNORING CASE

add a dot (.) before *

this [link|http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/9222ea17-0a01-0010-4a85-a71ba4284b9d?quicklink=index&overridelayout=true] may help

edited: I think that regex that Sampath Kumar posted is better than add a dot

Edited by: Sebastian Bustamante on Apr 7, 2011 7:56 PM

Re: Search a pattern in a table

Former Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:58:37 GMT

Thanks Sampath. But this one is an OR condition, right? It is giving incorrect results as if I remove Test, still it is working as REG word is there.

Re: Search a pattern in a table

former_member191735 — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:17:24 GMT

Yes it is a OR condition and it should work even if you remove 'tes' as you are using as a pattern.

There are different type of Regular expressions. couple of them are

Single Character strings and Character string patterns.

are you looking for a pattern or exact match?

by the way, you can use '^tes*' for space infornt of test.

Edited by: Sampath Kumar on Apr 7, 2011 12:23 PM

Re: Search a pattern in a table

Former Member — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:35:53 GMT

Hi,

If nothing works, I think you can try with the patterns for comparing strings like CP. In your case I guess CP will work.

You can refer this link for more details.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/fc/eb3516358411d1829f0000e829fbfe/content.htm

Also for finding character strings, you can refer the below link.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/fc/eb33cc358411d1829f0000e829fbfe/content.htm

Re: Search a pattern in a table

former_member191735 — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:48:01 GMT

If you found an answer please put that here and close the thread.