When exploring something new we properly have all been there where we jump down the rabbit hole. What we thought was going to be half an hour to an hour, suddenly turn into many more. Week challenge 443 was my rabbit hole, since regex is still one of those *languages* I still do not understand. More than most times it is easier to go ask AI to give me the correct regex formula than having to use lots of time to try and figure it out.
Here is a link to the Challenge-443-Mystery-of-the-Unjoined-Records Thanks to @clmc9601 for making this challenge.
Issue is how to handle invisible white spaces and here regex come into the picture.
Here is where my journey down the rabbit hole begins by trying to figure it out myself and also looking at other's solutions.
Yes, I went overboard. All of these solutions solve the issue by using the regex tool. I left out the formula tool though.
Replace - What most people seems to be using and gets the job done, but with various different regex formulas.
Parse - Second most used function. To two of these solutions I added so you can investigate which row and which affix to investigate if needed.
Tokenize - Since both Replace and Parse can do the trick, yes sure I got Tokenize working too.
So now looking at all the solutions, I know there are more, where do I go from here?
It seems such a powerful and resourceful tool, yet I feel Alteryx help pages does a poor job explaining the potential of regex. In my company, it is one of the tools that most people ask how to use and end up with either get AI or a co-worker to help them.
To me it seems a very powerful tool that I am just scrapping the surface of, but where do I find some good guides on regex to better understanding the language?
I know sites such as regex101 exist, but I prefer a more written guide or video tutorial.
Also, as I tried the different regex characters seems like Alteryx regex and other guides, I have found is not 1 to 1.
How are you supposed to use these? How would you use it in above challenge?
Start of word \<
End of word \>
I have added the Alteryx file here and I hope it can inspire others to start play around with regex and learn how versatile it is.
Thank you for reading through this.
Solved! Go to Solution.
