Regular expressions in CatDV Worker // Looking for right syntax

[Bob Spencer]

Hi, Leonid-
I agree that the use of regular expressions opens up some very powerful CatDV functionality, and there are a few integrators like us that have already explored REGEX in detail. For simple explanation and examples, look at the Worker release notes

For your immediate needs, I think you can use a simple match of the filename (“Basic Attributes” under Conditions, or variable $g if used in a formula) which tests for string “test” at the beginning of the filename, e.g.

/^(test)(S+)[^/]*$/

Make sure you remember to check the the REGEX box!

Bob Spencer
Video Technologies Group LLC
bob “at” vtgny dot com

[Rolf Howarth]

The FULL regular expression, given that I assume you only want to match files that start with “test”, not for that text appearing somewhere else in the file path, would be

^.*/test[^/]*.mov$

What the characters mean is:

^ = match start of string
.* = any number of any characters (. = any character, * = repeat previous match any number of times)
/test = literal “test” right after a file path separator (assuming you’re on Mac OS)
[^/]* = any number of non-/ characters, as you want to ensure that “test” occurred in the final filename component of the path
. = matches a period “.” ( means “escape” the next character and ignore its usual special meaning)
mov = literal “mov”
$ = match end of string

This expression is “anchored” to the start and end of the string and gives you maximum control, but it’s quite complex. As a shortcut, the worker will also recognise common Mac and Windows command line abbreviations, so you should also be able to write

test*.mov

to do what you want.

[Rolf Howarth]

Ok, it looks like the forum has stripped out my backslash characters! It obviously uses \\ itself as an escape character. That should have read

^.*/test[^/]*\\.mov$

-Rolf

[Rolf Howarth]

Aargh! I give up. Previously it stripped out my backslash, now it’s doubled it up!

[Bryson Jones]

^.*/test[^/]*\.mov$

Did you mean this, Rolf?

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

That one works, as tested in Worker Node 4 today.

Thank you Bob and Rolf both. There are tons of regex resources on the web, but a lot of them give info that doesn’t pertain to the app but this should be enough to start from.

Worker Node is not an app, it’s a career. 😉

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bob Spencer]

It’s a small club!

There may be one more edit required, as Leo also wants to match for other file types that start with “test” (e.g., testtime.mp4):

try this, which blends the previous methods:
^.*/test[^/]*.*$

Good luck, Leo!

Bob Spencer

Video Technologies Group LLC
bob “at” vtgny.com
vtgny.com

[Leonid Nekrasov]

Thanx everybody. This will bring me much further. I think this and some other often needed examples of using regular expressions belong into the manual of the Worker 😉

Regards
Leo