Regex Query (Does not seem to be working)

[elizabethmichaels91]

Hello all, I have a simple workflow:

The idea is to replace a string of text in each row of a column and output one with a 'cleaned' string.

In this workflow, I will be replacing HTML code such as <p*> and  codes inside and replace it with a NULL (or "").

I have tried using the Regex tool as well as the formula tool to attempt to remove the code but it does not work.

1. <p><br><br><ul><li><span>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li><li><span>FXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li><li><span>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li><li><span>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li></ul>

after

1. <p><br><br><ul><li>QED RXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li><li>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li><li>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li><li>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</li></ul>

2. before:

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;  display: inline-block; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 580px; font-family: FuturaMD, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br><br><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;  display: inline-block; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 580px; font-family: FuturaMD, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br><br>

after

2. <p style ="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;  display: inline-block; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 580px; font-family: FuturaMD, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&nbsp;<br><br><p box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;  display: inline-block; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 580px; font-family: FuturaMD, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br><br>

My congifuartion: 

As you can see, the orange and green parts are not removed despite using <p*>.

Any help will be appreciated

[danielbrun2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Elizabeth,

You are close to the solution. The explanation is that what you ask in your expression is to first match "<" then match "p" zero or more times, and then match ">".

What I think you would like to have as your regex expression is "<p.*?>". This will first match "<" then match "p" then match zero or more (that is what the "*" means) "." which is wilcards and then match ">". The "?" makes it only match characters until it hits the ">".

Best,

Daniel 

[elizabethmichaels91]

Thank you so much! I copied directly from an excel macro and hence the error.

The problem is fixed now.