Extract the first N words

Hi all- I am trying to design a marco that can help users to extract the first N words. But struggle with the REGEX here. In my example below, I have "(^(?:\S+\s+\n?){1,3})" so it should show the first 3 words, but instead it will only show the first 2 words. Any idea why? I attached the workflow below. Thanks!

First N words.yxzp

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lmorrell

Hi @stevenlsj789

This is a fun one for sure! The RegEx statement is returning:

A string of one or more non-whitespace characters FOLLOWED BY a string of one or more whitespace characters POTENTIALLY FOLLOWED BY a newline character.

The final character for the final word is not a space, therefore the RegEx is not capturing that last word.

I'm sure there are many solutions to this, but one solution is the below RegEx that removes the necessity for a capture word to end with a space by allowing 0 or more spaces following the non-whitespace characters.

(^(?:\S+\s*\n?){1,3})

Hope this helps!

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lmorrell

Hi @stevenlsj789

This is a fun one for sure! The RegEx statement is returning:

A string of one or more non-whitespace characters FOLLOWED BY a string of one or more whitespace characters POTENTIALLY FOLLOWED BY a newline character.

The final character for the final word is not a space, therefore the RegEx is not capturing that last word.

(^(?:\S+\s*\n?){1,3})

Hope this helps!

Thableaus

Hi @stevenlsj789

Here's a creative way to do it

- Address a RecordID to each row

- Use Tokenize REGEX to split words using the expression (\b\w+\b)

- Use Sample Tool and apply your numeric drop down to change how many words you want.

- Group by RecordID and concatenate separating by spaces (\s)

- Drop the RecordID field

This is just one way without complicating it too much (it uses more tools, but it's simple to understand)

WF attached.

Cheers,

QuickExtract.yxmc

csmith11

This looks like it was an awesome macro project! A very simple approach may have just been to use the GetWord(String, 1) and applied this to all value. The Macro could be then enable to dynamically update the number of words required. Just posting here in case other communities members find this helpful.

rzdodson

This is one way to do it. Put this in a Regex tool.

(^(?:\S+\s*\n?){1,3})

Solution.yxzp

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