StringRegExp: extract Date from Pathname

[revonatu]

Hi everybody,
 
I'd like to extract the Date (Folder Name) from a path that is saved as Local Constant:

Local $Date=0
Local Const $metaPath= @ScriptDir & "\warra\2015\150128\procEagle\rad\EA_warra_test.meta"
;Local Const $Date= "20" & StringRegExp($metaPath, '([:digit:]{6})', 1)
$Date= StringRegExp($metaPath, '(?:\)(\d{6})(?:\)', 0)

I want to get the 150128, to send it  to a text file later

Send("Time:{ENTER}Date{TAB}" & $Date & "^s")

But no matter what I try, I get no matches (output '0' or nothing at all). Other operations are able to work with $metaPath.

Where is my error?
 
Thanks for replies.

[SadBunny]

First: setting your second argument in the StringRegExp to 0 results in the call just returning 0 for no match, and 1 for match. You will not get the actual matching substring.

Second: your regular expression is wrong anyway

AFAICT you are just looking for the first occurence of a string consisting of 6 digits, enclosed by backslashes. I see what you tried to do with the non-capturing groups, but they are not necessary. What you failed to do is escaping the backslashes. If you want a literal backslash in a regular expression, you have to escape it by using two backslashes. Try this:

$metaPath= @ScriptDir & "\warra\2015\150128\procEagle\rad\EA_warra_test.meta"

$Date = StringRegExp($metaPath, '\\(\d{6})\\', 3)
; note the 3. It instructs the function to return an array of global matches. (See helpfile for more information.)

if @error Then
    msgbox(16, "error", "date not found in string!")
    Exit
Else
    msgbox(64, "super ultra turbo mega result!", $Date[0])
    ; The first match of the captured pattern is stored in array element 0.
    ; As you only want the first match, we don't care about subsequent matches,
    ;    so we just hardcode the use of the first element (which is element 0)
    ;    and disregard any other array elements that may or may not exist.
    ; If we do care about subsequent matches, we can find them in subsequent array elements.
EndIf

Edited April 1, 2015 by SadBunny

[revonatu]

@SadBunny

Thank You very much! I forgot to call the first element of my array. Now everything works.

[SadBunny]

Well, to be complete, as I mentioned, you also formulated your regex incorrectly and called StringRegExp in a way that never returns an array. (0 as second argument.) I changed that to 3, which is the flag to "Return array of global matches." See the table with "Flags - Values" early in the StringRegExp helpfile.

Edited April 1, 2015 by SadBunny