Pattern for StringRegExp that does not match

[water]

Hi RegExp gurus,

I have a script that lets the user filter the displayed records by entering the pattern for StringRegExp. If he enters "KSE" he gets all records containing this string. What should the user enter if he wants all records but "KSE"?

Thanks in advance

[dani]

".*(?!KSE).*"

Edited February 26, 2010 by d4ni

[water]

".*(?!KSE).*"

Thanks for your reply.

Your example returns TRUE when the pattern isn't found in the string but unfortunately it returns TRUE as well when the pattern is found in the string.

I need a pattern for StringRegExp that only returns true when the pattern can not be found in the string

ConsoleWrite(StringRegExp("AB_IK_Leitung",".*(?!KSE).*") & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite(StringRegExp("TM_IK_KSE_Leitung",".*(?!KSE).*") & @CRLF)

Both return TRUE but only example 1 should.

[dani]

Hm strange I will look into it. I have recently looked this up myself and I thought it was that notation. I'll find the solution !

Here you go:

$regEx = "\A(?!.*KSE).*\z"
ConsoleWrite(StringRegExp("AB_IK_Leitung", $regEx) & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite(StringRegExp("TM_IK_KSE_Leitung", $regEx) & @CRLF)

Apparently one of the wildcards was supposed to go inside the (?!) group, and \A and \z were needed. In my script I added the \A and \z automatically to the user's RegEx, like:

Func Input($regEx)
    StringRegExp($str, "(?i)\A" & $regEx & "\z") ; (?i) for case insensitive
    ...
EndFunc

Anyway, the exclude isn't very userfriendly You might want to say it's "!KSE" and then form the actual Regular Expression yourself.

If you want to do that you can use this:

$r = "!KSE" ; This would be what is entered in the inputbox
$regEx = StringRegExpReplace($r, "!(.*)", "(?!.*\1).*") ; This replacement also works if the user enters !(KSE|IK) -- exclude strings which include "KSE" OR "IK"
ConsoleWrite(StringRegExp("AB_IK_Leitung", "\A" & $regEx & "\z") & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite(StringRegExp("TM_IK_KSE_Leitung", "\A" & $regEx & "\z") & @CRLF)

Edited February 26, 2010 by d4ni