String affiliation

String affiliation is a pattern-matching language construct that extracts variables from plain text using template-based patterns.

Pattern format

A string affiliation pattern begins with a prefix and ends with a closing back-tick:

  • Single dollar ($`): Ignores insignificant whitespace during matching.
  • Double dollar ($$`): Matches text exactly, preserving all whitespace.

The string affiliation pattern format is the following:

$`<text>{<placeholder>}[text]`

The following example extracts a number from a sentence:

$`price is {value:number} euros`

Placeholder syntax

Placeholders extract values and must be enclosed in braces {}. Each placeholder defines a variable name and how to parse its value.

Table 1. Placeholder syntax
Syntax Description Example
{name:type} Uses a built-in type {count:number}
{name:"regex"} Uses a custom regular expression {code:"[A-Z]{3}-\d{4}"}
{name:type:format description} Applies formatting for dates, numbers, etc. {date:date:yyyy-MM-dd}

Built-in types include Boolean, number, string, date and time, and others. For more information about built-in types, see Data types.

Any type that supports JSON serialization can also be used in a placeholder.

using first and using all constructs

String affiliations work with the using first and using all constructs to extract variables from text.

using first matches the first occurrence of a pattern and declares variables from the match. The using first construct uses the following syntax:

using first $`<text>{<placeholder>}<text>` in <input text> do 
    <statements> 
end

The following example extracts the first number from a string: 

using first $`{value: number}` in "1234567890123456 number is a long. 123 is an int." do
    set result to "value: " + n;
end

Here, the expected output is value: 1234567890123456.

using all matches all occurrences of a pattern, extracting variables from each match. The rule triggers once per successful match. The using all construct uses the following syntax:

using all $`<text>{<placeholder>}<text>` in <input text> do 
    <statements> 
end

The following example extracts all numbers from a string: 

set result to " ";
using all $`{value: number}` in "int: 123 long: 123456789012345L hexa: 0xFFFF" do
    set result to result + value + " ";
end

Here, the expected output is 123 123456789012345 65535 .