Regular expressions

How to use regex inside the Data processing block

In the Data processing block you can run pattern-based search and replace. Regex lets you describe structure instead of matching a fixed literal string.

What is a regular expression?

A regular expression is a formal pattern used to locate text. It powers extraction, substitution, and lightweight parsing based on shape rather than exact copies.

Worked examples

Input	Pattern	Replacement	Result
`Last name: Ivanov, First name: Sergey`	`Last name: (\w+), First name: (\w+)`	`\2 \1`	`Sergey Ivanov`
`Phone: +1 (123) 456-78-90`	`\D`		`11234567890`
`Date: 2025-06-26`	`(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})`	`\3.\2.\1`	`Date: 26.06.2025`
`Email: test@mail.com`	`\w+@\w+\.\w+`	`hidden`	`Email: hidden`

Anatomy of a regex

Literal characters

abcMatches the exact substring abc

.Any single character except newline

Character classes

Pattern	Meaning
`\d`	Digit (0–9)
`\D`	Non-digit
`\w`	Word character (letter, digit, underscore)
`\W`	Non-word character
`\s`	Whitespace (space, tab, newline)
`\S`	Non-whitespace
`[abc]`	Exactly one of a, b, or c
`[^abc]`	Any character except a, b, or c
`[a-z]`	Any character from a through z

Quantifiers

Pattern	Meaning	Sample matches
`a*`	Zero or more repeats	"", "a", "aaaa"
`a+`	One or more repeats	"a", "aa", "aaa"
`a?`	Zero or one repeat	"", "a"
`a{3}`	Exactly three repeats	"aaa"
`a{2,4}`	Between two and four repeats	"aa", "aaa", "aaaa"
`a{2,}`	Two or more repeats	"aa", "aaaaa"

Anchors

Pattern	Meaning
`^`	Start of line
`$`	End of line
`\b`	Word boundary
`\B`	Not a word boundary

Groups and alternation

Pattern	Meaning
`(abc)`	Capturing group—saved for backreferences.
`(?:abc)`	Non-capturing group
`abc\|def`	Alternation: match abc or def

Replacement templates

Reference capturing groups from the pattern inside your replacement string:

\\1\\2Capture groups numbered in opening order

Group backreference walkthrough

Field	Value
Input	`Last name: Ivanov, First name: Sergey`
Pattern	`Last name: (\w+), First name: (\w+)`
Replacement	`\2 \1`
Output	`Sergey Ivanov`

Metacharacters

Several symbols are reserved. Escape them with a backslash (\) when you need the literal character:

Symbol	Role
`.`	Any character
`*`	Quantifier
`+`	Quantifier
`?`	Quantifier / optional
`( )`	Grouping
`[ ]`	Character class
`{ }`	Repeat count
`\`	Escape

To match a literal dot, write \.; an unescaped dot matches any character.

Recommendations

Prototype patterns in a debugger such as https://regex101.com/.
Add capturing groups whenever you need to rearrange substrings.
Keep complex expressions readable with parentheses and inline notes while iterating locally.

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