Regex pattern for a number inside square bracket - r

I am trying to replace strings which start with a number inside a square bracket with a word.
[1]FirstWord!FF >> FirstReplace!!FF
[2]SecondWord!FF >> SecondReplace!!FF
This code only works if there is no [number] at the beginning.
'test!FF' %>% str_replace_all("test(['\"])?!","replace!")
But how can I update the pattern if I have something like below:
'[1]test!FF' %>% str_replace_all("[1]test(['\"])?!","replace!")

You want
'[1]test!FF' %>% str_replace_all("\\[\\d+]test['\"]?!", "replace!")
## => [1] "replace!FF"
Note: If the [number] part is optional, wrap it with an optional non-capturing group: "(?:\\[\\d+])?test['\"]?!".
Details:
\[ - a [ char
\d+ - one or more digits
] - a ] char
test - a test word
['\"]? - an optional " or '
! - a ! char.

Related

grep in R, literal and pattern match

I have seen in manuals how to use grep to match either a pattern or an exact string. However, I cannot figure out how to do both at the same time. I have a latex file where I want to find the following pattern:
\caption[SOME WORDS]
and replace it with:
\caption[\textit{SOME WORDS}]
I have tried with:
texfile <- sub('\\caption[','\\caption[\\textit ', texfile, fixed=TRUE)
but I do not know how to tell grep that there should be some text after the square bracket, and then a closed square bracket.
You can use
texfile <- "\\caption[SOME WORDS]" ## -> \caption[\textit{SOME WORDS}]
texfile <-gsub('(\\\\caption\\[)([^][]*)]','\\1\\\\textit{\\2}]', texfile)
cat(texfile)
## -> \caption[\textit{SOME WORDS}]
See the R demo online.
Details:
(\\caption\[) - Group 1 (\1 in the replacement pattern): a \caption[ string
([^][]*) - Group 2 (\2 in the replacement pattern): any zero or more chars other than [ and ]
] - a ] char.
Another solution based on a PCRE regex:
gsub('\\Q\\caption[\\E\\K([^][]*)]','\\\\textit{\\1}]', texfile, perl=TRUE)
See this R demo online. Details:
\Q - start "quoting", i.e. treating the patterns to the right as literal text
\caption[ - a literal fixed string
\E - stop quoting the pattern
\K - omit text matched so far
([^][]*) - Group 1 (\1): any zero or more non-bracket chars
] - a ] char.

Extract exact matches from array

Assume I have text and I want to extract exact matches. How can I do this efficiently:
test_text <- c("[]", "[1234]", "[1234a]", "[v1256a] ghjk kjh",
"[othername1256b] kjhgfd hgj",
"[v1256] ghjk kjh", "[v1256] kjhgfd hgj",
" text here [name1991] and here",
"[name1990] this is an explanation",
"[name1991] this is another explanation",
"[mäölk1234]")
expected <- c("[v1256a]", "[othername1256b]", "[v1256]", "[v1256]", "[name1991]",
"[name1990]", "[name1991]", "[mäölk1234]")
# This works:
regmatches(text, regexpr("\\[.*[0-9]{4}.*\\]", text))
But I guess something like "\\[.*[0-9]{4}(?[a-z])]\\]" would be better but it throws an error
Error in regexpr("\[.[0-9]{4}(?[a-z])]\]", text) : invalid
regular expression '[.[0-9]{4}(?[a-z])]]', reason 'Invalid regexp'
Only ONE letter should follow the year, but there can be none, see example. Sorry, I rarly use regexpr...
Updated question solution
It seems you want to extract all occurrences of 1+ letters followed with 4 digits and then an optional letter inside square brackets.
Use
test_text <- c("[]", "[1234]", "[1234a]", "[v1256a] ghjk kjh",
"[othername1256b] kjhgfd hgj",
"[v1256] ghjk kjh", "[v1256] kjhgfd hgj",
" text here [name1991] and here",
"[name1990] this is an explanation",
"[name1991] this is another explanation",
"[mäölk1234]")
regmatches(test_text, regexpr("\\[\\p{L}+[0-9]{4}\\p{L}?]", test_text, perl=TRUE))
# => c("[v1256a]", "[othername1256b]", "[v1256]", "[v1256]", "[name1991]",
# "[name1990]", "[name1991]", "[mäölk1234]")
See the R demo online. NOTE that you need to use a PCRE regex for this to work, perl=TRUE is crucial here.
Details
\[ - a [ char
\p{L}+ - 1+ any Unicode letters
[0-9]{4} - four ASCII digits
\\p{L}? - an optional any Unicode letter
] - a ] char.
Original answer
Use
regmatches(test_text, regexpr("\\[[^][]*[0-9]{4}[[:alpha:]]?]", test_text))
Or
regmatches(test_text, regexpr("\\[[^][]*[0-9]{4}[a-zA-Z]?]", test_text))
See the regex demo and a Regulex graph:
Details
\[ - a [ char
[^][]* - 0 or more chars other than [ and ] (HINT: if you only expect letters here replace with [[:alpha:]]* or [a-zA-Z]*)
[0-9]{4} - four digits
[[:alpha:]]? - an optional letter (or [a-zA-Z]? will match any ASCII optional letter)
] - a ] char
R test:
regmatches(test_text, regexpr("\\[[^][]*[0-9]{4}[[:alpha:]]?]", test_text))
## => [1] "[v1256a]" "[othername1256b]" "[v1256]" "[v1256]" "[name1991]" "[name1990]" "[name1991]"

remove all characters between string and bracket in R

Say I have a dataframe df in which a column df$strings contains strings like
[cat 00.04;09]
[cat 00.04;10]
and so on. I want to remove all characters between "[cat" and "]" to yield
[cat]
[cat]
I've tried this using gsub but it's not working and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong:
gsub('cat*?\\]', '', df)
Note that cat*?\\] patten matches ca, then any 0+ t chars but as few as possible and then ].
You want to match any chars other than ] between [cat and ]:
gsub('\\[cat[^]]*\\]', '[cat]', df$strings)
Here,
\\[ - matches [
cat - matches cat
[^]]* - 0+ chars other than ] (note that ] inside the bracket expression should not be escaped when placed at the start - else, if you escape it, you will need to add perl=TRUE argument since PCRE regex engine can handle regex escapes inside bracket expressions (not the default TRE))
\\] - a ] (you do not even need to escape it, you may just use ]).
See the R demo:
x <- c("[cat 00.04;09]", "[cat 00.04;10]")
gsub('\\[cat[^]]*\\]', '[cat]', x)
## => [1] "[cat]" "[cat]"
If cat can be any word, use
gsub('\\[(\\w+)[^]]*\\]', '[\\1]', x)
where (\\w+) is a capturing group with ID=1 that matches 1 or more word chars, and \\1 in the replacement pattern is a replacement backreference that stands for the group value.

Regular Expression, Match ccurrenced text

I have this string :
*Field1=0(1936-S),Field13=0(2),Field2=0(),Field4=0(19.01.17),Field3=0(),Field5700=0(),Field5400=0(KS),Field14=0(21)*
And I need store n-th value of FieldN so I tried this:
(?<=Field[0-9]=0){4}?.*?(?=,)
This give me (1936-S) when I put N=4, I expect 19.01.17.
Can you help me please?
You may use
^\*(?:Field[0-9]+=0\([^)]*\),){3}Field[0-9]+=0\(\K[^)]*
(demo) or a capturing group based pattern:
^\*(?:Field[0-9]+=0\([^)]*\),){3}Field[0-9]+=0\(([^)]*)
See the regex demo
Details
^ - start of a string
\* - a * char
(?:Field[0-9]+=0\([^)]*\),){3} - 3 sequences of:
Field - a Field substring
[0-9]+ - 1 or more digits
=0\( - a =0( substring
[^)]* - any 0+ chars other than )
\), - a ), substring
Field[0-9]+=0\( - a Field subtring followed with 1+ digits, and then =0( substring
([^)]*) - Group 1: any 0+ chars other than ).

Regex: Extracting numbers from parentheses with multiple matches

How do I match the year such that it is general for the following examples.
a <- '"You Are There" (1953) {The Death of Socrates (399 B.C.) (#1.14)}'
b <- 'Þegar það gerist (1998/I) (TV)'
I have tried the following, but did not have the biggest success.
gsub('.+\\(([0-9]+.+\\)).?$', '\\1', a)
What I thought it did was to go until it finds a (, then it would make a group of numbers, then any character until it meets a ). And if there are several matches, I want to extract the first group.
Any suggestions to where I go wrong? I have been doing this in R.
You could use
library(stringr)
strings <- c('"You Are There" (1953) {The Death of Socrates (399 B.C.) (#1.14)}', 'Þegar það gerist (1998/I) (TV)')
years <- str_match(strings, "\\((\\d+(?: B\\.C\\.)?)")[,2]
years
# [1] "1953" "1998"
The expression here is
\( # (
(\d+ # capture 1+ digits
(?: B\.C\.)? # B.C. eventually
)
Note that backslashes need to be escaped in R.
Your pattern contains .+ parts that match 1 or more chars as many as possible, and at best your pattern could grab last 4 digit chunks from the incoming strings.
You may use
^.*?\((\d{4})(?:/[^)]*)?\).*
Replace with \1 to only keep the 4 digit number. See the regex demo.
Details
^ - start of string
.*? - any 0+ chars as few as possible
\( - a (
(\d{4}) - Group 1: four digits
(?: - start of an optional non-capturing group
/ - a /
[^)]* - any 0+ chars other than )
)? - end of the group
\) - a ) (OPTIONAL, MAY BE OMITTED)
.* - the rest of the string.
See the R demo:
a <- c('"You Are There" (1953) {The Death of Socrates (399 B.C.) (#1.14)}', 'Þegar það gerist (1998/I) (TV)', 'Johannes Passion, BWV. 245 (1725 Version) (1996) (V)')
sub("^.*?\\((\\d{4})(?:/[^)]*)?\\).*", "\\1", a)
# => [1] "1953" "1998" "1996"
Another base R solution is to match the 4 digits after (:
regmatches(a, regexpr("\\(\\K\\d{4}(?=(?:/[^)]*)?\\))", a, perl=TRUE))
# => [1] "1953" "1998" "1996"
The \(\K\d{4} pattern matches ( and then drops it due to \K match reset operator and then a (?=(?:/[^)]*)?\\)) lookahead ensures there is an optional / + 0+ chars other than ) and then a ). Note that regexpr extracts the first match only.

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