Get sub-string from text based on certain conditions rules

Question

I have a string like:

17:27 - 13:10(+1 day) Trip duration 13h43 New York (JFK) 1 x transfer Includes travel by bus Maastricht (ZYT) Lowest fare USD 862 View flight details 

I want to get certain texts from the string like departing time or price. But the strings can be of different lengths and texts so I need rules to be able to get the sub-strings I need.

What I know: Times are formatted like 17:27 - 13:10 with depart time on left and arrival time on the right of -, locations as New York (JFK) where the first is depart location and the second is arrival location, transfers are a number followed by an x like 1 x, and a price is a number that comes after USD text like USD 862

So in the above example text, the data I want to extract from the string is: 17:27, 13:10, New York (JFK), 1, Maastricht (ZYT), and 862

To explain it better, say I know a specific string like the one I gave above, I would like to extract it like this:

   String text = "17:27 - 13:10(+1 day) Trip duration 13h43 New York (JFK) 1 x transfer Includes travel by bus Maastricht (ZYT) Lowest fare USD 862 View flight details";   
   String departTime = text.substring(0, 5);
   String arrivalTime = text.substring(8, 13);
   String depart = text.substring(42, 56);
   String arrive = text.substring(93, 109);
   String transfers = text.substring(57, 58);
   String price = text.substring(126, 129);
   System.out.println(" departTime: "+departTime+"\n arrivalTime: "+arrivalTime+"\n depart: "+depart+"\n arrive: "+arrive+"\n transfers: "+transfers+"\n price: "+price);

But this won't work as the cases are different. Below are more text examples:

18:50 - 13:10(+1 day) Trip duration 12h20 New York (JFK) 1 x transfer Includes travel by bus Maastricht (ZYT) KL0646 Inflight services: Lowest fare USD 862 View flight details
12:00 - 13:10(+1 day) Trip duration 19h10 New York (JFK) 2 x transfer Includes travel by bus Maastricht (ZYT) Inflight services: FromUSD 864 View flight details
12:00 - 13:10(+1 day) Trip duration 19h10 New York (JFK) 2 x transfer Includes travel by bus Maastricht (ZYT) FromUSD 864 View flight details 3 seats left at this fare
07:45 - 13:10(+1 day) Trip duration 23h25 New York (JFK) 2 x transfer Includes travel by bus Maastricht (ZYT) FromUSD 864 View flight details 1 seat left at this fare 

Comments

Hi, @There,

Do you want a wholesome code regarding your above query? According to your explanation are you trying to mean a code where your substring from the main string will be available?

Answer 1

Hello @laiman,

You can use IsMatch function that tests whether a text string matches a pattern that can comprise ordinary characters, predefined patterns, or a regular expression. The Match and MatchAll functions return what was matched, including sub-matches.

Syntax

IsMatch( Text, Pattern [, Options ] )

• Text – Required. The text string to test.
• Pattern – Required. The pattern to test as a text string. Concatenate predefined patterns that the Match enum defines, or provide a regular expression. Pattern must be a constant formula without any variables, data sources, or other dynamic references that change as the app runs.
• Options – Optional. A text-string combination of MatchOptions enum values. By default, MatchOptions.Complete is used.

Imagine that your app contains a Text input control named TextInput1. The user enters values into this control to be stored in a database.

The user types Hello world into TextInput1.

ORDINARY CHARACTERS

Formula	Description	Result
IsMatch( TextInput1.Text, "Hello world" )	Tests whether the user's input matches, exactly, the string "Hello world".	true
IsMatch( TextInput1.Text, "Good bye" )	Tests whether the user's input matches, exactly, the string "Good bye".	false
IsMatch( TextInput1.Text, "hello", Contains )	Tests whether the user's input contains the word "hello" (case sensitive).	false
IsMatch( TextInput1.Text, "hello", Contains & IgnoreCase )	Tests whether the user's input contains the word "hello" (case insensitive).	true

You can also refer to this doc-ISMatch
Hope it helps!!
Thank you!!