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regextclregexp-replace

tcl regexp related to mix of character and number

My file contains 

roll_number : someNumber ; name(mixOfcharactersAndNumbers) filePathInLinux

such as

roll_number : 81 ; name(JOHN_23_CARTER) /home/directory/johnc
roll_number : 22 ; name(michael21_Lee) /home/directory/mhlee

My regexp was 

regexp {.*name([a-zA-Z0-9]+.*} $line match name 
regexp {.*name(.*).*} $line match name

It seems like due to mix of both number and character I am not able regexp correctly, am I missing something here?

Solution

  • The main issues are that you did not escape ( char and did not account for the _ char in your first regex. Also, you do not need to match the whole input, it is not necessary with TCL regex that allows partial matches, i.e. matching shorter substrings inside longer ones.

    Just match name( (with name\() and then capture into Group 1 one or more word chars (with (\w+)):

    set a "roll_number : 81 ; name(JOHN_23_CARTER) /home/directory/johnc"
regexp {name\((\w+)} $a - name

    See this TCL demo printing JOHN_23_CARTER.

    Also, see an online regex demo.