Extracting Single Lines Using Regex

Posted June 11th, 2008 by grantwood

Hello,

Suppose I have the following script:

Set Variable [ $list ; List ( "apple|red" ; "banana|yellow" ; "grape|white" ) ]
Set Variable [ $pattern ; "/^banana.*$/i" ]
Set Variable [ $match ; Regex.MatchAll ( $list ; $pattern ) ]

where Regex.MatchAll ( _text ; _pattern ) is the following custom function:
Let (
[
$fm_text = _text ;
$fm_pattern = _pattern ;
_code =
"
$text = fm_evaluate ('$fm_text');¶
$pattern = fm_evaluate ('$fm_pattern');¶
preg_match_all ($pattern, $text, $matches);¶

echo join(\"\n\", $matches[0]);¶
"
] ;

PHP_Execute( _code )
)

I'm expecting the entire line "banana|yellow" to be returned, but instead $match is empty. Any ideas?

There certainly might be a problem with my custom function. Maybe in version 2.0 of your PHP plugin you can wrap some common PHP tasks in FMP external functions? ;o)

Regards,
Sean

A Different Custom Function

On June 12th, 2008 grantwood says:

After thinking about my problem some more, I came up with a slightly different custom function, called Regex.MatchLines

Regex.MatchLines ( _list ; _pattern )

Let (
[
$fm_list = _list ;
$fm_pattern = _pattern ;
_code =
"
$list = fm_evaluate('$fm_list');¶
$pattern = fm_evaluate('$fm_pattern');¶

$array = preg_split(\"/\r/\", $list);¶
$matches = preg_grep($pattern, $array);¶

echo join(\"\r\", $matches);¶
"
] ;

PHP_Execute( _code )
)

I'm converting the return-delimited list into a PHP array (preg_split) and then searching the array for items that match the supplied pattern (preg_grep). Any search results are placed in an array, which is then converted back to a return-delimited list.

--
Regards,
Sean Mills
Grantwood Technology LLC
http://www.grantwoodtechnology.com