extract s string between two characters

[Anonymous]

How to extract string between two Characters.

Example: String = abc@123|def

Here the two characters @ and |

Dsired Output : 123

[douglasromao · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

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

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)

 

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', '|'))

 

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_@'))

 

The result of this action, will be 3 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'))

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":

[Anonymous]

@douglasromao Thanks. it worked .

[Alerodri]

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

[Jasonkatz424]

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

[Anonymous]

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]

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.

[gmurnock]

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

[Anonymous]

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]

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]

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]

 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"

 

[Anonymous]

 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"

 

[hilary_stoupa]

Gorgeous, thank you!

[Anonymous]

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!

[siva143u]

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]

Thanks it worked for me, well explained.