Using StringRegExpReplace to Remove all but a pattern match

[benners]

I have made a function that returns a KB number from a string

#include <StringConstants.au3>
#include <Array.au3>

Local $str = 'Update for Microsoft Outlook Social Connector 2010 (KB2553308) KB234567 32-Bit Edition'

MsgBox(0,'', __UT_GetKbArticleNumberFromString($str))
MsgBox(0,'', StringRegExpReplace($str, '(?i)(KB[[:digit:]]{5,})', "")) ; trying do do it with a one liner

Func __UT_GetKbArticleNumberFromString($s_Test, $i_Flag = $STR_REGEXPARRAYGLOBALMATCH)
    Local $av_KBAN = StringRegExp($s_Test, '(?i)(KB[[:digit:]]{5,})', $i_Flag)
    If @error Then Return SetError(@error, $i_Flag, '')

    ; if an array then set @extended as the number of matches found and set the return value as the first array element
    If IsArray($av_KBAN) Then Return SetError(0, UBound($av_KBAN), $av_KBAN[0])
    Return SetError(0, 1, $av_KBAN)
EndFunc   ;==>__UT_GetKbArticleNumberFromString

I thought I would try and do it all with one line so I could just return the StringRegExpReplace but the closest I could get after an hour is a headache, and to keep everything but what I want. Is there a way to do this by replacing or should I just stick to the original idea?

[Jury]

MsgBox(0,'', StringRegExpReplace($str, '(?i).*?(KB[[:digit:]]{5,}).*?$', "$1")) ; trying do do it with a one liner

 

[benners]

Thanks Jury.

I had come close to your pattern with one of mine

MsgBox(0,'', StringRegExpReplace($str, '.*(?i)(KB[[:digit:]]{5,}).*', ""))

but I always got an empty string so scrapped it. Didn't know about $1, will have to read up on that 

[mikell]

There are 2 matches in the string, so the regex must be written depending on the one you want

Local $str = 'Update for Microsoft Outlook Social Connector 2010 (KB2553308) KB234567 32-Bit Edition'

; this will get the first one
MsgBox(0,'', StringRegExpReplace($str, '(?i).*?(KB[[:digit:]]{5,}).*', "$1")) 

; this will get the last one
MsgBox(0,'', StringRegExpReplace($str, '(?i).*(KB[[:digit:]]{5,}).*', "$1"))

 

[Jury]

you might want to look at a regex tester such as:  https://regex101.com/ they can really help in the beginning.  Note that it seems most everyone has a variation on any regex and I'm far from being an expert I don't take into account the number of steps or ms different expression doing the same job will take.  Good luck.

[benners]

2 minutes ago, mikell said:

There are 2 matches in the string, so the regex must be written depending on the one you want

Local $str = 'Update for Microsoft Outlook Social Connector 2010 (KB2553308) KB234567 32-Bit Edition'

; this will get the first one
MsgBox(0,'', StringRegExpReplace($str, '(?i).*?(KB[[:digit:]]{5,}).*', "$1")) 

; this will get the last one
MsgBox(0,'', StringRegExpReplace($str, '(?i).*(KB[[:digit:]]{5,}).*', "$1"))

 

Thanks mikell, my bad. I will only need the first one. There should only be one in the string so in the original function 

__UT_GetKbArticleNumberFromString

I only returned the first one found

[benners]

Thanks again Jury. I will bookmark it. I was\have used Expresso in the past, but normally just end up with msgbox and randomly picked characters from the StringRegExp part of the help file, it's my version of the infinite monkey theorem 

Edited May 7, 2017 by benners
typo

[corgano]

Another solution is to use stringregexp with flag 3, and then a for loop to combine the array back into a string. Simplifies the regex.

[benners]

That's what the original function in the first post did.

__UT_GetKbArticleNumberFromString