Using Regex to Split String

Question

So I have a string like this (the hashtags are delimiters)

A1###B2###C3###12345.jpg

I was wondering how would I access A1, B2 and C3

STRING1###STRING2###STRING3###STRING4.jpg
SOME###THING###HERE###MEH.jpg
EXTRACT###THIS###PLEASE###pah.jpg

In one instance I'd like to extract the first string. In another the second, in another the third. I will be using this with Adobe Bridge to extract metadata items from the filename

I am looping through each filename so would need

Var1 = FirstString
Var2 = SecondString
Var3 = ThirdString

Anything? Really? Could they be `B2` or `C3`? Are they fixed length? What language are you using? — Oded, Sep 01 '12 at 15:22
Who's downvoting the answers? They answer the question as written. — OrangeDog, Sep 01 '12 at 15:24
https://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/12/8/21/uEYRq9DvQUOanGpesRk_eQ2.png — OrangeDog, Sep 01 '12 at 15:24
Within reason. I basically have 3 strings that can be delimited by hashtags — pee2pee, Sep 01 '12 at 15:24
You need to give several real examples of the particular strings you want, and what you want extracted from them. Your generalized examples are completely unclear. — tchrist, Sep 01 '12 at 15:32

Tim Pietzcker · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-01T15:38:52.273

2

[^#]+(?=###)

will match all substrings in your strings that are followed by ###

>>> s = "STRING1###STRING2###STRING3###STRING4.jpg"
>>> import re
>>> re.findall("[^#]+(?=###)", s)
['STRING1', 'STRING2', 'STRING3']

Or, for the example in your comment:

>>> s = "Slayer###Reading Festival###James###123.jpg"
>>> artist, event, photographer = re.findall("[^#]+(?=###)", s)
>>> artist
'Slayer'
>>> event
'Reading Festival'
>>> photographer
'James'

Assuming that Adobe Bridge has an ECMAScript-based scripting engine, you can use a different regex:

var myregexp = /^([^#]+)###([^#]+)###([^#]+)###/;
var match = myregexp.exec(subject);
if (match != null) {
    artist = match[1];
    event = match[2];
    photographer = match[3];
}

edited Sep 01 '12 at 15:38

answered Sep 01 '12 at 15:29

Tim Pietzcker

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So let's say I have Slayer###Reading Festival###James###123.jpg. How would I assign Slayer to the variable artist, Reading Festival to event and James to Photographer? – pee2pee Sep 01 '12 at 15:31
@JanuszJasinski: See my edit. (The language used is Python; you didn't specify which language you would be using, so I picked the one I know best.) – Tim Pietzcker Sep 01 '12 at 15:33
1

I am using it within Adobe Bridge JavaScript (JSX) – pee2pee Sep 01 '12 at 15:36
@JanuszJasinski: OK, I've added an ECMAScript-based answer. I would expect that to work in JSX, too. – Tim Pietzcker Sep 01 '12 at 15:40

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '12 at 15:22

-1

This would be your regular expression:

(A1).*(B2).*(C3).*\.jpg

This will capture the three parts you want, while ignoring the rest of the string.

To access the parts, you just use \1,\2\,\3 respectively.

answered Sep 01 '12 at 15:22

hbhakhra

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I should be more clear STRING1###STRING2###STRING3###STRING4.jpg In one instance I'd like to extract the first string. In another the second, in another the third. I will be using this with Adobe Bridge to extract metadata items from the filename – pee2pee Sep 01 '12 at 15:27
No, this is wrong. You can only use things like `\1`, `\2`, and `\3` within the very same pattern, not outside of it, and even then only in certain flavors of pattern-matching languages. – tchrist Sep 01 '12 at 15:33

Using Regex to Split String

2 Answers2