Patterns for The Fields in The Regular Expression

For each field listed on the Match panel as a “pattern” field, you can select which pattern the field should have. The pattern specifies what kind of text the field should match: a date, a number, an email address, etc. All the patterns provide various options to restrict the acceptable values. E.g. the “number” pattern allows you to limit the numbers your regex will match to a certain range, require or disallow decimals, etc.

In the screen shot of the Match panel, the “basic characters” pattern was selected for field , the “number” pattern was selected for field , the “date and time” pattern for field , and the “national ID” pattern for field . Field is selected in the “select field” drop-down list, allowing its pattern to be edited. The “pattern to match field” drop-down list is always present, allowing you to choose a completely different pattern for that field. Below that list you can configure the pattern. For the “national ID” pattern, there is only one drop-down list labeled “kind of ID” that allows you to choose a particular national ID such as a US social security number.

To edit the pattern of another field, use the “select field” drop-down list. Only pattern fields appear in this list. You can also click on the colored squares to the left of the settings for each pattern field to edit that field’s pattern. Clicking the colored square of an alternation or sequence selects the pattern of the first pattern field inside the alternation or sequence.

• Pattern used by another field: Use the same pattern as another field, but allow the two fields to match different text, as long as it fits the pattern.
• Text matched by another field: Require this field to match the exact same text already matched by a previous field.
• Match anything: Do not use any pattern to restrict the contents of the field.
• Unicode characters: Restrict this field to certain kinds of Unicode characters.
• Basic characters: Restrict this field to certain ASCII characters.
• Character masks: Require this field to match one of a list of simple character masks.
• List of literal text: Require this field to match one of a list of literal text values.
• Literal text: Make this field always match the same bit of text.
• Number: Match floating point numbers or monetary values.
• Integer: Match integer numbers in decimal, hexadecimal, octal and/or binary notation.
• Date and time: Match a date and/or a time.
• Email address: Match an email address.
• URL: Match an Internet address.
• Country: Country codes and/or names (ISO 3166).
• Currency: Currency codes (ISO 4217).
• Credit card number: Match a credit card number.
• National ID: ID card numbers, social security numbers, license plate numbers, etc. used in particular countries.
• VAT number: Value Added Tax numbers used in the European Union.
• GUID: Globally Unique Identifier.
• Regular expression: Use an arbitrary regular expression to validate this field.