If you need only a portion of the variable, you can use the variable parsing syntax allowing to extract just the portion you need. It’s enough to enclose in round brackets the parsing directives just after the variable name, before the end % sign.
%VARIABLE(EXPRESSION)%
The parsing directives are semicolon separated and can include multiple options.
Single character extraction: Just specify the position of the character to extract.
Range extraction: Just specify the first and last position, separated by a minus symbol or how many characters extract from the beginning and / or the end by using the minus symbol at the beginning or at the end.
Split extraction by separator: Just indicate the split separator character followed by the index of split part to return.
Regular Expressions
For advanced extractions Regular Expressions can be used as well to extract the specific matching part(s) of the target variable value. In this case the Regular Expression needs to be enclosed in angular brackets in a similar way of the previous parsing directives.
%VARIABLE<REGEXP>%
Examples
%MYVARIABLE% = 123*ABCDE*45678
%MYVARIABLE(1;4;6)% = 1*B
In the example above we got only the first, the forth and the sixth character, as indicated in the round brackets (1,4,6)
%MYVARIABLE(2-7)% = 23*ABC
In the example above we got all characters from second to seventh position (included)
%MYVARIABLE(1-3;8;13-)% = 123D678
In the example above we get the first three characters, followed by the 8th and from the thirteenth character to the end of the word
%MYVARIABLE(16)% = null value
In the example above we get the 16th character, but in the sample variable value it doesn’t exist so we get a null value.
%MYVARIABLE(-5)% = 123*A
In the example above, we get the first 5 characters.
%MYVARIABLE(‘*’,1)% = 123
In the example above we get the first section of the variable, considering the asterisk as sections separators.
%MYVARIABLE(‘*’,2)% = ABCDE
In the example above we get the second section of the variable, considering the asterisk as sections separators.
%MYVARIABLE(‘*’,3)% = 45678
In the example above we get the third section of the variable, considering the asterisk as sections separators.
%MYVARIABLE(‘*’,4)% = null value
In the example above we should get the fourth section of the variable, considering the asterisk as sections separators, but in the sample variable value it doesn’t exist so we get a null value.
%MYVARIABLE<[A-Z]+>% = ABCDE
In the example above we get the letters part by using a Regular Expression to match any number of letters in the class A-Z.
%MYVARIABLE<[0-9]{3}>% = 123 456
In the example above we get the two couples of 3 digits by using a Regular Expression to match any sequence of 3 digits.
%MYVARIABLE% = Lorem Ipsum Nr 12345 dolor sit amet
%MYVARIABLE<Nr [0-9]{5}>% = Nr 12345
In the example above we extract the Number (we imagine it is an invoice number in the middle of a bigger OCR extracted text) by using a Regular Expression to match a fixed prefix “Nr ” followed by a 5 digits number.