Counting the number of instances in a string where instances are of varying lengths

[TA_MBC]

Hi,

I have a string of marks which are of varying lengths and contain different symbols.  I have used REGEX_CountMatches([field],'symbol',1) to count the number of times the symbol is in the string, however the symbol can be repeated for any number of times, stop and then start again.  I need to count the number of times the symbol starts...

example:

xxxxxxYxxxxYYYxxxYYxxxxxxYYYYY

in the string above the RegEx function will give me 11 Ys, which is great but I also need to get an answer of 4 for this example.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[DavidSkaife · Accepted solution]

Hi @TA_MBC 

I'm assuming you're using Regex_CountMatches? A simple tweak to the code is required by adding + after the Y:

REGEX_CountMatches([field1], 'Y+')

You then get this output:

The + denotes to look for one or more instances of Y

[TA_MBC]

That's perfect! thank you :)