Automation - using create variable to extract text

[Priscille Lesne]

Hi, 

I want to extract a serial number that is in a middle of some text in my issue.summary. 
The format of my serial number is: "E-" followed by 7 numbers (i.e: E-1234567). 

I have created a variable: {{issue.summary.match("E-\\d{7}")}} but it returns nothing. 
I also tried:  {{issue.summary.find("E-\\d{7}")}} but it returns nothing. 

Any idea? 

Thank you! 

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Priscille Lesne 

The solution you found will match to any characters, and not just digits.  For example, E-abcdefg.

Please try this one to match only to the seven digits in the expression:

{{issue.summary.match("(E\-\d{7})")}}

Kind regards,
Bill

[Priscille Lesne]

I've used Himanshi's solution {{issue.summary.match(".*(E-\\d{7}).*")}} and it matches only to the seven digits. 

What do the \ mean?

[Bill Sheboy]

That depends upon what follows the forward slash character...

According to the Atlassian documentation, the "underlying implementation is based on Java's Pattern class and uses Matcher.find() to find matches", with emphasis added by me.

• https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-text-fields/#match--
• https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html

Thus \d is a digit, 0-9, and the forward slash may indicate other expressions or escape the character that follows.  For example, \- escapes the dash for use in the expression.

In my experience with Jira automation rules, one must experiment and fully test to know what does and does not work with their implementation of regular expressions.  This will prevent surprises, such as the known racetrack error problems when using regular expressions with different rule features.

[Priscille Lesne · Accepted solution]

I've solved my problem. I should have written: 

{{issue.summary.match("(E\-.{7})")}}

[Himanshi · Accepted solution]

Hello Priscille, 

Welcome to the community! Thank you for sharing the use case with an example and attempted smart values. It was helpful for me to understand what di'nt work for you. 

You can try {{issue.summary.match(".*(E-\\d{7}).*")}} to fetch the Serial number. 

I added ".*" before and after the regex to indicate that the summary could start and end with any character. 

Please try this smart value and consider to mark this answer if it works for you.

Have a lovely day ahead!

[Priscille Lesne]

That's great, it works! Thanks for the explanation!