Real meaning of Regular Expression’s(RG’s) – User friendly Tech help

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It is a way of representing data using symbols, which are in the form of special characters like ‘*’,’ +’, ’.’,  ’’.
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n Further these characters are used for search of particular pattern in strings.

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RG’s in UFT:

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These are used in UFT to identify objects and text strings with varying values very useful in dynamic objects.

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Usage: 

n1. Defining Properties of an Object. (Object Repository)n

2. Pattern matching in Check points.

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3. Parameterize an object property or check point

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Test:

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We can test pattern match using “Regular Expression Evaluator”

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Tools>Regular Expression Evaluator.

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Screenshot of window: RG evaluator

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Using RG in UFT:

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n1. We can define a regular expression for a constant value, a Data Table parameter value, an Environment parameter value, or a property value in Descriptive programming.n

2. We can define a regular expression in standard checkpoint to verify the property values of an object;we can set the expected value of an object’s property as a regular expression so that an object with a varying value can be verified.

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3.We can define the text string as a regular expression, when creating a text checkpoint to check that a varying text string is displayed on our application,
n4.For XML checkpoints we can set attribute or element values as regular expressions.

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Types of RG’s:

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i) Backslash Character:

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 A backslash () can serve two purposes. It can be used in conjunction with a special character to indicate that the next character be treated as a literal character.

nFor example, UFT recognizes n as the special newline character. n

Alternatively, if the backslash () is used in conjunction with some characters that would otherwise be treated as literal characters, such as the letters n, t, w, or d, the combination indicates a special character. 

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For example, w matches the character w
nw is a special character that matches any word character including underscore.

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Practical example:-

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In the URL of a blog  http://uftautomation.blogspot.in/,
nThe period would be mistaken as an indication of a regular expression. To indicate that the

nperiod is not part of a regular expression, you would enter it as follows:
nuftautomation.blogspot .inn

ii) Matching Any Single Character:

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A period (.) tells UFT to search for any single character (except for n).
nFor example:

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RG:Train.
nMatches Trains, Trained, or Train followed by a space or any other single character. 

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iii) Matching Any Single Character in a List:

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nSquare brackets [] instruct UFT to search for any single character within a list of characters. 

nFor example:n

To search for the Year 2013, 2019, or 2015,

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RG: 201[359] 

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iv) Matching Any Single Character Not in a List:

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n When a caret (^) is the first character inside square brackets, it instructs UFT to match
n any character in the list except for the ones specified in the string.
nFor example: 
nRG: [^13] 
nMatches any character except 1 or 3. 

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v) Matching Any Single Character within a Range:

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n To match a single character within a range, we can use square brackets ([ ]) with the 

nhyphen (–) character.
nFor example: For matching any number in the range 1000s,n

RG: 100[0-9]

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Screenshot: We are looking for 3 digit number between (130 -149)

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RG: [1][3-4][0-9]

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vi) Matching Zero or More Specific Characters:

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n An asterisk (*) instructs UFT to match zero or more occurrences of the preceding 

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For example:

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RG: ma*n 

nMatches man, maaaaaan, and ma

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vii) Matching One or More Specific Characters:

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n A plus sign (+) instructs UFT to match one or more occurrences of the preceding 
ncharacter.
nFor example: 
nRG: ma+n 
nMatches man and maaaaaaan, but not mn. 

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viii) Matching Zero or One Specific Character:

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nA question mark (?) instructs UFT to match zero or one occurrences of the preceding 
ncharacter.
nFor example: 
nRG: ma?n 
nMatches man and ma , but nothing else. 

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ix) Grouping RG:

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n Parentheses (()) instruct UFT to treat the contained sequence as a unit, just as in 
nmathematics and programming languages. Using groups is especially useful for delimiting
n the argument(s) to an alternation operator ( | ) or a repetition operator ( * , + , ? , { } ).

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x)  Matching One of Several RG’s:

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n A vertical line (|) instructs UFT to match one of a choice of expressions.

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xi)  Matching the Beginning of a input:

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n A caret (^) instructs UFT to match the expression only at the start of a line, or after

n a newline character.n

xii)  Matches the end of input:

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A dollar sign ($) instructs UFT to match the expression only at the end of a line, or before a newline character.

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xiii)  Matching Any Alphanumeric Character Including the Underscore:

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n w instructs UFT to match any alphanumeric character and the underscore any combination
n of (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _).

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xiv)  Matching Any Non-Alphanumeric Character:

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n W instructs UFT to match any character other than alphanumeric characters and 
nunderscores any combination other than (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _).

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Some other cardinal RG’s:

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a) Matches a digit character : d, it is  Equivalent to [0-9].

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b) Matches a non-digit character: D, it is Equivalent to [^0-9].

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c) Matches a newline character: n

nd) Matches a carriage return character: r
ne) Matches a tab character: t