<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  5. Detailed description of the Actions > 5.6. Cleaning > 5.6.2. Regular Expression Test (High-Speed action)

 

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Function: RegularExpressionTest
 

Property window:

 

 

Short description:

 

Check columns using a regular expression.

 

Long Description:

 

This action checks the given columns to see if they match a specific pattern that is given as a standard regular expression.

The default test for the Regular Expression Action checks if the selected column contains a valid e-mail address. This test uses a regular expression to check of the columns contains a well-formed e-mail address:

 

This demonstrates that you can easily use the powerful and very versatile “Regular Expression syntax” everywhere inside your Anatella graphs.

 

There exist many books and references about regular expression. Here are some of them:
 

· Regular Expressions Cookbook by Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan

· Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes by Ben Forta

· Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl

 

The easiest way to use the Regular Expression Action is to use some pre-defined regular expression. Regular expression can be used for a wide variety of usage. On the internet, you’ll find large libraries of regular expressions: for example: This website: http://regexlib.com  contains thousands of “pre-made” regular expressions that are classified in a wide variety of topics: email, url, numbers, strings, dates, times, address/phone, markup/code, etc.