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Anonymous
Not applicable

extract s string between two characters

How to extract string between two Characters.

 

Example: String = abc@123|def

Here the two characters @ and |

 

Dsired Output : 123

 

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
douglasromao
Kudo Kingpin
Kudo Kingpin

Hi @Anonymous,

 

I used 4 Compose actions to do that, it´s a combination of some expressions that I will explain to you:

 

1.png

 

 

 

First of all, we need to use the IndexOf expression to get which is the position of the @ and | character, so I added a compose action to get this:

 

To get the @ position, I used the below expression:

 

add(int(indexOf('abc@123|def', '@')), 1)
 

 2.png

    

This expression will get the index of the '@' character on my text and add 1, this sum will return to us the properly character that we need to get the information.
 
The result of this expression will be 4, that is the character 1 of our string.
 
Now, we will do the same thing to '|' character, but we don´t need use the add expression in this case, the expression will be:
 
int(indexOf('abc@123|def', '|'))
 
 3.png

  

The result of this expression will be 7, that is the character | of our string.
 
Now, we are going to create a compose action to get how many characters are between the two characters ('@' and "|'), we are going to use the below expression to do that:
 
sub(outputs('Get_IndexOf_|'),outputs('Get_IndexOf_@'))
 
 4.png

 

The result of this action, will be that is how many characters are between the two characters.
 
Now, we just have to add a new compose action to use substring expression to get the parse information for our string. The expression will be:
 
substring('abc@123|def', outputs('Get_IndexOf_@'),outputs('Get_Last_index'))
 
1.png

 

We are using the substring to get from a string the start index and the lenght of characters that we want to get. 
 
The result will be "123":
 
1.png

 

 

View solution in original post

16 REPLIES 16
douglasromao
Kudo Kingpin
Kudo Kingpin

Hi @Anonymous,

 

I used 4 Compose actions to do that, it´s a combination of some expressions that I will explain to you:

 

1.png

 

 

 

First of all, we need to use the IndexOf expression to get which is the position of the @ and | character, so I added a compose action to get this:

 

To get the @ position, I used the below expression:

 

add(int(indexOf('abc@123|def', '@')), 1)
 

 2.png

    

This expression will get the index of the '@' character on my text and add 1, this sum will return to us the properly character that we need to get the information.
 
The result of this expression will be 4, that is the character 1 of our string.
 
Now, we will do the same thing to '|' character, but we don´t need use the add expression in this case, the expression will be:
 
int(indexOf('abc@123|def', '|'))
 
 3.png

  

The result of this expression will be 7, that is the character | of our string.
 
Now, we are going to create a compose action to get how many characters are between the two characters ('@' and "|'), we are going to use the below expression to do that:
 
sub(outputs('Get_IndexOf_|'),outputs('Get_IndexOf_@'))
 
 4.png

 

The result of this action, will be that is how many characters are between the two characters.
 
Now, we just have to add a new compose action to use substring expression to get the parse information for our string. The expression will be:
 
substring('abc@123|def', outputs('Get_IndexOf_@'),outputs('Get_Last_index'))
 
1.png

 

We are using the substring to get from a string the start index and the lenght of characters that we want to get. 
 
The result will be "123":
 
1.png

 

 
Anonymous
Not applicable

@douglasromao Thanks. it worked .

Thanks @douglasromao, You made my Day. It also worked for me!

Props to you, this is great.  Thanks so much.

Anonymous
Not applicable

douglasromao, 

 

Great solution!  I was hoping you might be able to help me understand why it won't work for me?  Everytime I run the flow it gives me a -1 value for the index position..... Can't seem to find out why.  I've tried it with html body and html_to_text versions and get the same result. See below: 

 

Below I am converting and HTML email to text and attempting to parse certain information - in this case the URL that is highlighted:

 
Command inputs:
 
add(int(indexOf('html_to_text', 'URL: ')), 1)
 
int(indexOf('html_to_text', ' To'))
 
Source:
 
 
 
Result:
 
 
Hoping this is an easy fix.  Thanks for any help you can offer!
Anonymous
Not applicable

I found a simpler one-step solution to this. You could split the string by the second delimiter, get the first part of the array, then split that item by your first delimiter and get the last part of the array. 

 

String = 'abc@123|def'

 

first(split('abc@123|def','|')) = 'abc@123'

last(split('abc@123'),'@') = '123'

 

so, last(split(first(split('abc@123|def','|')),'@')) = 123

 

this post goes into more detail.

I used this method and it works AWESOME!  Thank you!

Anonymous
Not applicable

Please help me i'm trying to do something very similar but instead of keeping whatever is between the delimiters I want to remove it.

 

E.g.  I have a string:

 

Reconsider your need to travel [/consular-services/travel-advice-explained] due to the volatile security situation and the high risk that foreigners, including Australians, could be arbitrarily detained or arrested. Dual nationals are also at risk.

 

I want to remove everything between and including the [ and ] delimiters.  I.e. remove this [/consular-services/travel-advice-explained]

 

I can do it with 2 splits and the concatenate the results together but I need to put this into many flows so if I can achieve it in one step would be awesome.

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

I have a file like "abc1099.i_have_a_file_123456_001.txt"  where I want to extract last 10 digits of the number before the "." (period)

Output I am expecting is "123456_001"

Anonymous
Not applicable

what if you get the url value from initialise variable. and then use this to index .

 

This gives error

 

add(int(indexOf('variables('URL')''ID=')), 1)
Anonymous
Not applicable

 for example 

 

 example url is 

/Communication%20Campaigns/DispForm.aspx?ID=24491&Source=https%3A%2F%2Fsdsuedu%2Esharepoint%2Ecom%2F...

 

and I need number between "ID=" and "&" which is "24491"

 Screenshot 2020-08-26 at 9.22.56 PM.png

Anonymous
Not applicable

 for example 

 

 example url is 

/Communication%20Campaigns/DispForm.aspx?ID=24491&Source=https%3A%2F%2Fsdsuedu%2Esharepoint%2Ecom%2Fsites%2Fes%2Dcommunications%2FLists%2FCommunication%2520Campaigns%2FComm%2520Campaigns%2520Calendar%2520View%2Easpx  

 

and I need number between "ID=" and "&" which is "24491"

 Screenshot 2020-08-26 at 9.22.56 PM.png

Gorgeous, thank you!

Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks, I was looking for a way to parse an email (static format) and insert the elements into a sharepoint list. Your solution helped me do this perfectly. Much appreciated!

Hi douglasromao,

 

Your post is very helpful.

But I am trying to get value between the special characters "(" and ")". But i am getiing invalid expression error when i replaced @ with '(' or | with ")"

Text: msdyn_richtextfiles(f5f78a76-7502-ed11-82e4-000d3a9d250e)/msdyn_imageblob

expression: add(int(indexOf(items('Apply_to_each_3')), '('), 1)

 

Can you please help me

 

Shaboo992
Advocate I
Advocate I

Thanks it worked for me, well explained.

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