Using wildcards to autopopulate fields

[Peter Cranston]

Hi I have a requirement to autopopulate a new field based on an abbreviation of the existing Project No field. This field is in the format of MD1234.

I want the wildcard to recognise the first two characters ie MD part of this field and then take action to populate the new field based on a configured dropdown however unsure how to use the wildcard and whether the { } brackets are required when building the automation.

I have looked at the general instructions however cannot get if to work.

As usual any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Peter C.

[Carolina Lopez]

Hi Peter!

The format you mentioned is a little bit hard to build a pattern. I'll do my best to explain why, but please let me know if you have questions.
The Project No field is composed of a code containing two parts, the one with letters and the one with numbers. The problem is that both are variables, so we don't have anything "fixed" to create the pattern.
Let's say your code is MD-1234 instead of MD1234. Then the pattern would be {*}-{*} where the {wildcard1} would be MD and {wildcard2} would be 1234. All the cards will have the field with the - in common, and this is why we can create a pattern, it's something that will not change.

I have two suggestions for this situation.
1- If the number following the two first characters always begins with the same character (for example 1234, 1345, 1816). Then you can use this pattern: {*}1{*}. Here's an example of the rule:

2- If you are willing to create many rules, you can create one for each option of first characters (each dropdown option). Let's say you have AB1234, CD1234, and EF1234, then you can create rules like these:

Let me know if this helps.