Albato: Value Parser tool

Last update: 5/3/2023 · 2 min read

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IN THIS ARTICLE

The Value Parser, or Regular Expressions, is an advanced way to search and replace text.

How to use value parser tool

In the tool's settings, you can specify:

what to replace: symbols, characters, words, custom sets (templates), etc.

replace with: symbols, character, custom sets (templates), etc.

While simple character search works like a standard "Find and Replace", Regular Expressions are great because you can search for multiple characters, exclude them, add rules, and more.

Examples of custom search templates

x|y — Searches for x or y

x(?=y) — Searches for x only if it's followed by y

[a-d] — Range of characters — Square brackets mean "any character from the list."

\w+@\w+.\w+ — Searches for email.

([0-3]\d).([01]\d).(\d{4}) — Searches for date in format dd.mm.yyyy

(8|+7|7)[0-9]{7,10} — Searches for phone number in format 8********** or +7**********.

There are countless templates and combinations to replace text, and you can find many resources online.

Examples of custom value parsing patterns

Case 1: Converting the date format from DD.MM.YYYY to YYYY_MM_DD

Tool Settings: The "What to replace" and "Replace with" fields use custom templates.

Template: ([0-3]\d).([01]\d).(\d{4})

Replace with: $3_$2_$1.

The result will look like this:

Case 2: Remove tags from an email

What to replace:

\<(\/?[^>]+)>|(\n)|(\s{4,})

Replace with: Space.

Case 3: Extracting a domain from a URL

What to replace: ^https?://([^/]+)/.*$

Replace with: $1

This pattern extracts the domain name from a full URL that contains a path or parameters. For example, from https://example.org/id25 you’ll get: example.org