MiniRobotLanguage (MRL)
STR.RegExpr
Matches a regular expression pattern against a string.
Intention
This Command performs regular expression pattern matching to test if a string contains text that matches a specified pattern. It returns the matched text or an indicator of success.
Regular expressions provide powerful pattern matching for complex text validation and extraction tasks.
Syntax
STR.RegExpr|P1|P2|P3
Parameter Explanation
�P1 - (Input, Text) The source string to search.
�P2 - (Input, Text) The regular expression pattern to match.
�P3 - (Output, Text) Variable to store the matched text, or empty if no match.
Regular Expression Matching
Source: "Contact: john@email.com or jane@site.org"
Pattern: "[a-z]+@[a-z]+\.[a-z]+"
Result: "john@email.com" (first match)
Source: "Phone: 555-1234"
Pattern: "\d{3}-\d{4}"
Result: "555-1234"
Example
'***********************************
' STR.RegExpr Example
'***********************************
$$TEXT="Order #12345 confirmed on 2024-01-15"
' Extract order number
STR.RegExpr|$$TEXT|Order #(\d+)|$$ORDER
' $$ORDER = "Order #12345" (full match)
' Extract date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
$$DATA="Meeting scheduled for 2024-03-25 at 14:00"
STR.RegExpr|$$DATA|\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}|$$DATE
' $$DATE = "2024-03-25"
' Validate email format
$$EMAIL="user@example.com"
STR.RegExpr|$$EMAIL|^[\w.-]+@[\w.-]+\.\w+$|$$VALID
IF $$VALID<>"" THEN MBX.Valid email!
ENR.
Remarks
? Returns only the first match found in the string.
? Pattern syntax follows standard regular expression rules.
? Common patterns: \d=digit, \w=word char, .=any char, *=zero or more, +=one or more, ?=optional.
? Use ^ to anchor to start, $ to anchor to end of string.
? For complex replacements, use STR.RegReplace instead.
Common Patterns
? \d+ - One or more digits
? [A-Za-z]+ - One or more letters
? \w+@\w+\.\w+ - Simple email pattern
? https?://\S+ - URL pattern
See also:
? STR.RegReplace - Replace using regex
? STR.Contains - Simple substring check
? STR.Instr - Find position of substring