Using Regex with PowerSearch

Technical Support
1

Hello,

I am trying to create a checklist item that will identify numbers separated by EN-dash or regular dash with optional spaces around the dash, and make sure that the target has these numbers separated by EN-dash only.
PowerSearch = ON
Source: ([0-9]{1,3})=1[:space:][–-][:space:]([0-9])=2
Source mode: Regex
Target: -@1–@2
Target mode: Simple (also tried Regex)
However, with PowerSearch=ON, I get the following error: Error in source: incomplete expression, and the cursor moves till after the first closing parenthesis. I tried putting a simple (s) in the Source but the same error appears.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!
Denis

2

The following search should find those segments:

Source: "<([0-9]{1,3})=1[:space:]?[\-\x2013][:space:]?([0-9]{1,3}>)=2"
Target: -"<@1\x2013@2>"
PowerSearch: On.
Search Mode: Regular Expressions

The regular dash should be escaped when search as a character in regex syntax. The ? character after [:space:] means that there can be one or zero spaces. ``\x2013` is the hexadecimal value of the en-dash.

Hope this helps.

3

Thanks a lot! It works!

However, I don’t understand why it does not work without double quotes in the Source expression (an error about ) appears). I have not seen an explanation about double quotes in the source within your online documentation. Could you please explain why they are needed?

Thanks!
Denis

4

The regular dash is not escaped in your source regex. With powersearch on, - is used as a negative operator if not escaped as \-.

In this case, this results in the error message.

5

Thanks, it makes sense now!