topic Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ? in Application Development and Automation Discussions

Does 4.7 system support regex ?

Former Member — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:02:51 GMT

Does 4.7 system support REGEX ? If not , then what is the alternate that we need to use in the ABAP code ?

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

GauthamV — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:21:40 GMT

Regex is supported from release 7.0 only.

http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABENREGULAR_EXPRESSIONS.htm

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

Former Member — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:33:04 GMT

ABAP supports regular expressions as of Release 7.00.

One more thing is there , if you are able to install the patches from SAP for lower versions you can use it ( BASIS team will be knowing the correct patch).

Regards,

Ben

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

Former Member — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:57:23 GMT

Is there any alternate of REGEX that can be used in 4.7 system ?

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

matt — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:12:26 GMT

There is a workaround involving invoking JavaScript from ABAP. The details are [here|http://www.web-dreamer.de/blog/2008/02/abap-using-regex-regular-expressions-in-a-pre-netweaver-release.html].

I have used this solution and confirm that it work.

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

Former Member — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:29:56 GMT

Hi Nikhil,

It will depend on your requirement.Anyway there is no exact function that do the 'regex' in ABAP.

<< Moderator message - Cut and paste response from http://sample-code-abap.blogspot.com/2010/02/regular-expression-in-sap-abap.html removed and points unassigned. Plagiarism is not allowed in SCN >>

These are some of the common use.

Please go through these SCN Blogs

[http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/18115]

[http://sapignite.com/regex-in-abap/].

[http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/866072ca-0b01-0010-54b1-9c02a45ba8aa?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true]

So make sure what is your play with REGEX and these things are achieved by normal ABAP coding also.

Matt,

Thanks for your valuable info.

Edited by: Rob Burbank on Feb 14, 2012 9:42 AM

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

Former Member — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:05:37 GMT

This message was moderated.

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

Clemenss — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:41:44 GMT

Hi Nikhil,

it really depends on your requirement. Before regex was introduced, SAP provided powerful spaghetti code functions for relatively simple purposes like the check of validity of an email address which can be done better using regex.

In simple cases, especially where performance is required, you are by far better off using the existing CS CP NP operators combined with (length)+offset.

I used regex intensively once in an ALV spreadsheet with tens of thousands of cells. Then I did a performance analysis, then I replaced all regex with old-fashioned code - got a performance boost.

Regards,

Clemens

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

matt — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:16:08 GMT

Clemens - I'm not sure you're right about regex and email address validation - it's one of the notorious problems for regex. e.g. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/201323/how-to-use-a-regular-expression-to-validate-an-email-addresses

Re: Does 4.7 system support regex ?

Clemenss — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:30:01 GMT

Hi Matt,

yes, you are right, the example was not chosen properly.

My statement is only that regex is powerful put slow and can be replaced by 'conventional' code..

Regards,

Clemens