Regex in XLST 1.0

Question

Is there a way to use regex in XSLT 1.0 with XML as the input and desired output? I am trying to use a test to confirm that a variable is in a timecode format, i.e. hh:mm:ss:ff.

The regular expression I currently am working with is:

[0-1][0-9]|2[0-3])(:|;)[0-5][0-9](:|;)[0-5][0-9](:|;)[0-9][0-9]

To produce a value time code in format hh:mm:ss:ff the following requirements must be met:

[hh = 00 - 19 or 20 - 23]
[; or :]
[mm = 00 - 59]
[; or :]
[ss = 00 -59]
[; or :]
[ff = 00 - 99]

Possible duplicate of [How do I use a regular expression in XSLT 1.0?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8916208/how-do-i-use-a-regular-expression-in-xslt-1-0) — revo, Aug 23 '16 at 17:14
It is slightly like this, however this expression is much more complicated than 1 number and 1 letter. I wanted to use an expression such as: ([0-1][0-9]|2[0-3])(:|;)[0-5][0-9](:|;)[0-5][0-9](:|;)[0-9][0-9](@[0-9]+(\.[0-9]{1,}){0,1}){0,1} — hguza, Aug 23 '16 at 17:50
The answer, however, is going to be essentially the same as in the previous question. XSLT 1.0 does not support regular expressions; if your processor supports the EXSLT regular expressions functions (http://exslt.org/regexp/), use them; otherwise, fake it. The pattern you describe is not that hard to test and process. — C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, Aug 23 '16 at 18:22
@Parfait Verifying the format of a text string is completely different from trying to *parse* (i.e. separate markup from payload) an XML/HTML document. — michael.hor257k, Aug 23 '16 at 20:10
I will be importing into Vantage, currently I am testing on sublime text 3. I am not able to use EXSLT or XSLT 2.0 — hguza, Aug 23 '16 at 20:34
@hguza I have no idea what Vantage is.See here how to identify the XSLT procesor: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25244370/how-can-i-check-which-xslt-processor-is-being-used-in-solr/25245033#25245033 — michael.hor257k, Aug 23 '16 at 21:35
See: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb986124.aspx Although I believe the answer given below, which does not require any extensions is simple enough. — michael.hor257k, Aug 24 '16 at 14:55

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 23 '16 at 20:27

There is no regex support in XSLT 1.0.
Your processor may offer a way to use regex as an extension.
You can easily perform a partial test validating the format (but not the contents) of the variable as:
```
translate($TC, '123456789;', '000000000:') ='00:00:00:00'
```
This will return true for any string formatted as "##:##:##:##" (where any of the colons can be a semi-colon). However, it will not check for the hours being less than 24, or the minutes/seconds being less than 60.

If you want such tests, you will have to add them individually, e.g.:
```
substring($TC, 1, 2) &lt; 24
```
for the hours.

Regex in XLST 1.0

1 Answers1