Regular Expressions in Routines 

Use

You can use regular expressions in routines.

A regular expression (abbreviation: RegExp or Regex) is a pattern of literal and special characters which describes a set of character strings. In ABAP, you can use regular expressions in the FIND and REPLACE statements, and in classes CL_ABAP_REGEX and CL_ABAP_MATCHER. For more information, see the ABAP key word documentation in the ABAP Editor. This documentation describes the syntax of regular expressions and you can test regular expressions in the ABAP Editor.

Example

This section provides sample code to illustrate how you can use regular expressions in routines.

REPORT z_regex.

 

DATA: l_input TYPE string,

      l_regex TYPE string,

      l_new   TYPE string.

 

* Example 1: Insert thousand separator

 

l_input = '12345678'.

l_regex = '([0-9])(?=([0-9]{3})+(?![0-9]))'.

l_new = '$1,'.

 

WRITE: / 'Before:', l_input.    "12345678

 

REPLACE

  ALL OCCURRENCES OF

  REGEX l_regex

  IN l_input WITH l_new.

 

WRITE: / 'After:', l_input.     "12,345,678

 

* Example 2: Convert date in US format to German format

 

l_input = '6/30/2005'.

l_regex = '([01]?[0-9])/([0-3]?[0-9])/'.

l_new = '$2.$1.'.

 

WRITE: / 'Before:', l_input.    "6/30/2005

 

REPLACE

  ALL OCCURRENCES OF

  REGEX l_regex

  IN l_input WITH l_new.

 

WRITE: / 'After:', l_input.     "30.6.2005

 

* Example 3: Convert external date in US format to internal date

 

DATA: matcher   TYPE REF TO cl_abap_matcher,

      submatch1 TYPE string,

      submatch2 TYPE string,

      match     TYPE c.

 

l_input = '6/30/2005'.

l_regex = '([01]?)([0-9])/([0-3]?)([0-9])/([0-9]{4})'.

 

matcher = cl_abap_matcher=>create( pattern     = l_regex

                                   text        = l_input ).

 

match = matcher->match( ).

 

TRY.

    CALL METHOD matcher->get_submatch

      EXPORTING

        index    = 1

      RECEIVING

        submatch = submatch1.

  CATCH cx_sy_matcher.

ENDTRY.

 

TRY.

    CALL METHOD matcher->get_submatch

      EXPORTING

        index    = 3

      RECEIVING

        submatch = submatch2.

  CATCH cx_sy_matcher.

ENDTRY.

 

IF submatch1 IS INITIAL.

  IF submatch2 IS INITIAL.

    l_new = '$5\0$2\0$4'.

  ELSE.

    l_new = '$5\0$2$3$4'.

  ENDIF.

ELSE.

  IF submatch2 IS INITIAL.

    l_new = '$5$1$2\0$4'.

  ELSE.

    l_new = '$5$1$2$3$4'.

  ENDIF.

ENDIF.

 

WRITE: / 'Before:', l_input.    "6/30/2005

 

REPLACE

  ALL OCCURRENCES OF

  REGEX l_regex

  IN l_input WITH l_new.

 

WRITE: / 'After:', l_input.     "20050630