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Question

I cannot get exactly 9 digits to pop in Adobe Acrobat using regEx.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 8, 2018
5 replies
1154 views

I cannot get exactly 9 digits to pop in Adobe Acrobat using RegEx custom redaction. Or any exact digit for that matter..

^[0-9]{9}$

-or-

^\d{9}$

returns zero hits.

Example = 456324787

This is simplest form and works in every online test and even on Regexbuddy.

I can get [0-9]{9} and \d{9} to pop but it gives a ton of false positives. Hence the ^ to start and $ to stop.

Example = 0.802738476(don’t want)

Example = 802738476.0(don’t want)

So is there any reason why Adobe pro redact would not accept the ^ or the $ to clean up my search??

I'm editing the SearchRedactPatterns.xml file to do this action.

This topic has been closed for replies.

C

ciliab5431014Author

Participating Frequently

Still have to check this out in SearchRedactPatterns.xml file but checks out everywhere else.

Contributed from a reddit user:

(?<!\d\.)\b\d{9}\b(?!\.\d)

https://regex101.com/r/Slf4eV/2

C

ciliab5431014Author

Participating Frequently

This code matches any 9 digits exactly anywhere on a document using regex and online tools

1.Why is this expression not recognized when formatted into the SearchRedactPatterns.xml for Adobe Acrobat Pro Redaction?

2.Is there an equivalent that Adobe will understand?

(?<!\d\.)\b\d{9}\b(?!\.\d)

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi ciliab5431014 ,

this one could come closer:

string.replace(/\d+\.\d+/g,"").replace(/\d{10,}/g,"").match(/\d{9}/g); // will return array or null

But keep in mind, that some cases are not caught by the pattern above leading to false positives or false negatives.

Some examples:

False positive with:

"My number is .123456789."

How to discern the case above from this one? :

"Just some words before I speak about a nine-digit number.123456789—numbers like that I want to catch. Oops, forgot a blank after my first sentence!"

And what, if the string contains a number in German notation where a , is used as a numeric decimal separator?
Or if separators are used for groups of digits.

Perhaps false negatives with:

"I want this: 123 456 789."

"I want this: 123,456,789."

German string: "I möchte das hier: 123.456.789, das hier aber nicht: 123.456.789,45."

Regards,
Uwe

JR Boulay

Community Expert

The best tool ever made for learning and testing GREP is… InDesign!

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

C

ciliab5431014Author

Participating Frequently

Noted.I was all over the road with the b and the \.

So the revised curiosity is how do I encapsulate just 9 numbers only? Would I need a vert bar organize 2 searches?

It the attached view, how can I have it all and write a search that will not detect the value with the red arrow pointed at it.

try67

Community Expert

Replace the first \b with \s, as well...

C

ciliab5431014Author

Participating Frequently

If I do that the first no longer gets returned.

no whitespace there..

T

Test Screen Name

Brainiac

Regular expressions are a lifetime study and I’ve never got past the frustration phase. Not sure what you intend (b\) to do but beware of looking for word break characters since ”.” is, as well as a decimal point, very much a word separator. My instincts would be to look for a space specifically but these can be iffy in PDF. But then... looking for a space won’t match start of line. Ick.

T

Test Screen Name

Brainiac

Are these 9 digit numbers on a line by themselves because ^ is start of line and $ is end of line?

C

ciliab5431014Author

Participating Frequently

intersting. Very good. So now I understand the ^ and the $ correctly.. I see now that they are reporting in line position.

So how would I search the pages and just report “exactly”

9 digits out on their own.

example=

837465738

-not-

00.637465839

637465839.00

So I guess this is closer to like some sort of trim or whitespace.?

My introduction to regex was yesterday so I’m learning. Knowing what I know now would it be:

(b\)\d{9}(b\)

Thank your for you help!

try67

Community Expert

It's "\b", not "b/". The escape character always comes before the escape letter.

Also, "^" and "$" do not signify the beginning and end of a line, but of a string. You can use a single RegExp to test a string that contains multiple lines in it. As mentioned, RegExps are an extremely complex subject, and sometimes a very frustrating one.

I don't think that "\b" will work for you. Try "\s", instead.

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