MAP operator not capturing from RegEx

ClaraCaba

Hello,

I have a collection of attributes that have values like 1 ~ 5, 5 ~ 20, and so on, and I would like to use the Map operator to map those values into something of the type  1 - 5, 5 - 20. Thus, I would like to replace the ~ symbol by the - symbol.

Anyway, like I said, I am using the Map operator to do so and, having selected my attribute,  I introduce a regular expression in the parameter Replace what and "$1 - $2" in the parameter Replace by. That should work, as far as I am concerned, but I don't obtain the expected expression but just a Text field saying "$1 - $2" literally.

What am I doing wrong? I would appretiate some help.

Thanks!

MartinLiebig

Hi,

i think you need to use replace instead of map. Have a look at the attached process.

~Martin

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<process version="7.0.001">
  <context>
    <input/>
    <output/>
    <macros/>
  </context>
  <operator activated="true" class="process" compatibility="7.0.001" expanded="true" name="Process">
    <process expanded="true">
      <operator activated="true" class="generate_data_user_specification" compatibility="7.0.001" expanded="true" height="68" name="Generate Data by User Specification" width="90" x="112" y="34">
        <list key="attribute_values">
          <parameter key="Value" value="&quot;1 ~ 2&quot;"/>
        </list>
        <list key="set_additional_roles"/>
      </operator>
      <operator activated="true" class="replace" compatibility="7.0.001" expanded="true" height="82" name="Replace" width="90" x="246" y="34">
        <parameter key="replace_what" value="~"/>
        <parameter key="replace_by" value="-"/>
      </operator>
      <connect from_op="Generate Data by User Specification" from_port="output" to_op="Replace" to_port="example set input"/>
      <connect from_op="Replace" from_port="example set output" to_port="result 1"/>
      <portSpacing port="source_input 1" spacing="0"/>
      <portSpacing port="sink_result 1" spacing="0"/>
      <portSpacing port="sink_result 2" spacing="0"/>
    </process>
  </operator>
</process>

ClaraCaba

Thank you very much, Martin!

That totally worked. 

I have another question that arised when I was working with the Replace operator.

Let's go back to my example: I had values of the type 1 ~ 5, 5 ~ 20. I used the operator Replace to turn those values into values of the type 1 - 5, 5 - 20. Is there any way to use those values (1 and 5, and 5 and 20, respectively) that have been captured with $1 and $2 to work with them? For example, to compute the sum of them (something of the type $1 + $2 doesn't work, it will just output a string saying 1 + 5 and 5 + 20, respectively).

Hope I expressed myself clearly!

Thank you very much in advance.

MartinLiebig

Hi,

yes there is
If you use a regex like

([0-9]+).*([0-9]+)

you get the capture groups (...) as $1 and $2

Best,
Martin

ClaraCaba

Hello again,

Thank you very much. That regex captured perfectly the two groups I needed for each values. Now I am trying to be able to sum the two numbers captured from the regex. But I can't because they are considered to be text and not real numbers.

Thank you!

MartinLiebig

Hi,
Parse Numbers is your friend. It parses strings to numericals.

Best,
Martin