Regex Search and Match¶
Searches the provided text with a regular expression and returns all matches. Uses Python-style regex semantics and returns a list of matches based on the pattern.
Usage¶
Use this node when you need to extract all occurrences of patterns from text, such as emails, specific word lengths, tokens, or structured substrings. Connect a text source to text_input, provide a valid regex_pattern, and consume the resulting list of matches in downstream logic.
Inputs¶
| Field | Required | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| text_input | True | STRING | The text to search for matches. Supports multi-line content. | Contact us at support@example.com or sales@example.org. |
| regex_pattern | True | STRING | A Python-compatible regular expression used to find matches. Inline flags like (?i) are supported. | \b[a-zA-Z]{6}\b |
Outputs¶
| Field | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| matches | LIST | A list of all matches found in the input text. If the pattern contains capture groups, each item may be a string (single group) or a tuple (multiple groups). | ['support', 'sales'] |
Important Notes¶
- Capture groups affect results: If your regex includes groups, each match will be the captured group(s) rather than the full match; with multiple groups, each item is a tuple.
- No global flags parameter: Provide flags inline in the pattern (e.g., (?i) for case-insensitive, (?m) for multiline, (?s) for dotall).
- Non-overlapping matches: Matches are found in a non-overlapping manner, following Python's re.findall behavior.
- Empty results: If no matches are found, the output is an empty list.
- Escaping: Remember to escape backslashes in patterns (e.g., use \b for a word boundary).
Troubleshooting¶
- Invalid regex error: If the node errors, verify the regex syntax and escape sequences. Test the pattern in a Python regex tester.
- Unexpected tuples in output: Remove capture groups or convert them to non-capturing groups (?:...) if you want full-match strings instead of tuples.
- Case sensitivity issues: Add (?i) to the pattern for case-insensitive matching.
- Multiline text not matching: Add (?m) or (?s) as needed to handle line boundaries or dot matches newline.
- Performance on large text: Simplify the pattern or narrow the search scope to avoid heavy processing on very large inputs.
Example Pipelines¶
