REGEX() expressions and an optional occurrence parameter for SUBSTITUTE()

[LeventK]

@praveen @tony
Is it possible to have powerful expressions like:
REGEXMATCH() (returns a TRUE/FALSE)
REGEXEXTRACT() (returns TEXT)
REGEXREPLACE() (returns TEXT)

I’m aware that the EXTRACT() expression can perform alike but at the end this function returns a list and it’s a bit limited in nature.

Additionally we need an optional occurrence parameter for the SUBSTITUTE expression which can save us from creating nested SUBSTITUTE expressions where expressions can become cleaner.

SUBSTITUTE( text_to_search, search_for, replace_with, [occurrence_number] )

What do you think?

[GreenFlux]

Yes, REGEX would be a huge upgrade for the current text-parsing abilities in AppSheet!

There are already 9 votes over on this request though:

Regular Expressions, Please Feature Requests

Regular expressions are my favourite. They’re amazing for processing data of all kinds, especially in the context of data input by many people because it recognises patterns. They’re also so universal, which makes them great for AppSheet, which integrates data from outside sources. My Google Sheets are full of array formulas that use them. Extract and Match are my favourites, but Replace makes the occasional appearance as well. For example, I’m trying to extract the time digits from a time stam…

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LeventK:

SUBSTITUTE( text_to_search, search_for, replace_with, [occurrence_number] * ) *

What do you think?

I can definitely see this being useful. I agree the SUBSTITUTE() function is a bit limited.

I had a different idea for optional extra pairs of text_to_search, text_to_replace.

Allow multiple sets of parameters in SUBSTITUTE, like SWITCH(), to avoid nesting multiple times Feature Requests

The SUBSTITUTE() function takes 3 arguments: SUBSTITUTE( template , old-text , new-text ) And when you want to substitute multiple values in the template, you have to nest multiple SUBSTITUTE()'s together: SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBST…

[Steve]

I don’t vote for many feature requests, but I voted for this one!

The downside: supporting them.

[LeventK]

That’s why Regex 101 is for @Steve. Regex is a very strong tool and a deep well yet, therefore if someone needs a solution, everyone need to make their hands dirty. We can only enlighten the path to the best of our knowledge here and we all are not magicians Thanks for your support btw, highly appreciated.

[Austin]

Gonna bump this to the front since I have no votes

[UrosCadez]

I agree 100%. Why can't you validate an input with a regular expression? Seems like a very common and straightforward thing to add to Appsheet. I could not believe it didn't have that.

[Saddam]

I want to make restriction that if there is any special characters in this field then it will not be valid. for this I need this feature 

[philippevg]

Was hoping this feature was already implemented - I too need this to validate phone number inputs.

[fedeyobe]

Yes! this would be really useful.

[alejomgp]

Any update on this?