ReGex Parse tool: Why isn't \D+ matching a less-than (<) symbol?

[jlefeaux]

I'm new to RegEx and this is driving me crazy.

I'm trying to find non-numeric characters in a data field that should be numeric.

In this case one of my users entered '< 85' in their spreadsheet.

I've set up a RegEx Parse to look for \D+, which to my understanding should match any field that contains one or more non-digits.  My output method is Match, but this expression is not matching the '< 85'.

I tested it on https://regex101.com/ and it matches in their tester, so I'm not sure what's going on here.

Tiny example workflow attached.

Thank you!

[neilgallen]

random guess, but it could be the space. I'm not sure how non-digit accounts for spaces.

[Thableaus · Accepted solution]

Hi @jlefeaux 

Match mode on RegEX checks the whole string for a match.

So basically, \D+ is checking if the whole string is a non-digit expression.

Cheers,

[Thableaus · Accepted solution]

@jlefeaux 

Try ^\d*\D+\d* 

Can your numbers be decimals? If so, you have to consider the (.) as a character as well.

Cheers,

[jlefeaux]

Hi @Thableaus.  Thanks for your suggestion, but sadly it did not work.

I've extended the sample workflow to include 2 bad examples and ^\d*\D+\d* did not catch either of them.

It's a good point about the decimal place & I will definitely address that once I get this issue figured out.

[Thableaus]

@jlefeaux 

You're adding an extra whitespace after the expression "^\d*\D+\d*"

Take off the extra whitespace at the end of the RegEX and it'll work.

Cheers,

[Thableaus]

@jlefeaux 

To match cases like <85+81 - let's say, non-digits with more digits

(^\d*\D+\d*)+ would do the trick.

Cheers, 

[jlefeaux]

@Thableaus ,

Arrgh, the whitespace came from copying & pasting from the webpage.

Removing the whitespace worked on the sample set in my example... But your new expression did not match <85+81

I've updated the tiny workflow with '(^\d*\D+\d*)+' and '<85+81'  & included it here if you are interested in pursuing the question.  Regardless, I'm going to mark your previous post as the solution.

Thank you!

[Thableaus]

@jlefeaux 

Sorry, it's ^(\d*\D+\d*)+

^ refers to the beginning of the line. So it happens just once.

Cheers,

[jlefeaux]

Ummm, acutally, no... it didn't :D