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RegEx - let's make it easier

Hi all,

 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Knowledge-Base/Tool-Mastery-RegEx/tac-p/74936

@AlexKo did an excellent article on RegEx, and Mark @MarqueeCrew Frisch has helped me out of many pickles with Regex - and one of the things that I've discussed with a few folk on the community is that Regex is super-powerful ( @Ken_Black made this same comment) and can do way more than we initially understand.

 

The problem is not one of the power of the tool, but rather the onramp to using it (it's painful to do/experiment/run/try etc, it doesn't give you any visual guides or hints when you've got it right or wrong, etc)

 

My method is to hop straight on to http://regex101, paste in sample text, and figure out the right RegEx in their AWESOME UI which really make this into a 5 minute job, and makes me feel like I've scored at least one victory today (it is so easy, you actually feel more powerful and competent).

 

Could we bring some of this great User Interaction design into the RegEx tool?   I honestly believe that if the RegEx tool was as easy and approachable as RegEx101.com (or why not go one better than them), we'd see an explosion in usage and creativity.

 

Thank you all

Sean

8 Comments
jdunkerley79
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus

Funnily felt the same way after v11 came out. 

 

Put it together an HTML UI for the Regex tool. The yxi is available at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/jdunkerley/AlteryxAddIns/assets/formulaTool/omnibusregex_1.0....

 

Currently does syntax highlighting and result preview but doesn't support parse mode yet.

 

Next step I plan is to intgrate Regex101s editor and work out a design for parse mode.

 

SeanAdams
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

MAN - that's just intimidating.   I had a look at the code, all your .js files, and although it's readable, it just reinforced that I have a long way to go in the learning journey, and that you're a pretty special human being James!

 

This would be a fantastic addition to the core product!

Atabarezz
13 - Pulsar

+1 great conversation and ideas

AlexKo
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)
Status changed to: Under Review

Thanks for the excellent ideas @SeanAdams & @jdunkerley79!

 

I totally agree that the usage of this tool would spike if we could smooth out the onramp. The SDK solution James put together is pretty darn cool and I think we should be able to incorporate something like that in the future. We don't have this on the roadmap yet but we'll definitely be reviewing this for upcoming planning.

KylieF
Alteryx Community Team
Alteryx Community Team
Status changed to: Revisit

Thank you for your post! We are really interested in this idea, however we cannot fit this idea on the near future road map. We’ll keep this idea in mind however and update the status once we’re better able to speak on when and if we can implement it.

Nezrin
11 - Bolide
11 - Bolide

Really get this. Even I was very reluctant to use RegEx at first because of having to navigate to other links to get confident of my syntax. Will be great to have this in-house.

Amin
8 - Asteroid

Was doing Weekly Challenge 207 and got the same idea too! Would be sooo awesome if this could be implemented!

TheOC
15 - Aurora
15 - Aurora

I've recently been learning Designer Cloud/Trifacta - and the way that it's delivered in there is fantastic. Instant visual representation of the effect of the regex to the sample data, and you can even edit it within the visuals, and it will do the regex for you.
It would be great to have similar in Alteryx. Regex is fantastic when you've done it, awful while you're doing it.