LPL - String Match and Replace with Regex?

Anyone know how to do string replacement with a regex in LPL? So far it looks like a regex can only be used with the "matches" operator in conditions.

I have a Business Class field that can contain a styled HTML table and it's creating unexpected behavior with the associated list (columns can't be resized due to style/class conflict).

Alternatively I'm trying to create a derived field that will sanitize / remove the HTML table if it exists, but no luck so far.

Would be simple with a regex match and replace, but I'm not seeing a way to do this in LPL.

Thanks!
Andy

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Chad Dirst

Andy, I haven't used this but see delivered Infor code that appears to do this. Take a look at the action "FormatVariable" within the HROrganization business class. Basically takes 3 inputs (Replacement Regular Expression, Value you want replaced, and Replace Invalids with) and then returns ReplacedValue.

It's not clear to me how this is working so I caution if this is a viable solution.

andy

Thanks Chad! I'll take a look.

andy

Hmm. Curious, that action just has some parameters that set values for local fields, and the local fields are just type Text, and I don't see any other derived fields or rule blocks that use those local fields. Must be something lower level happening. I have seen some Java string utils in other business classes but they usually can't be used in other modules, e.g. com.lawson.apps.procurement.base.StringUtils.java.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll keep digging.

Dr. Awesome

There is a TypeOperator "using <JavaFormat>" that might be useful here.

JavaFormat ::= ‘“’(<Literal> | ‘<’<RelatedValue>‘>’)…‘”’

// Must resolve to a JavaFormat as defined here:
// http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Formatter.html
// can also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression

Some examples I've seen:

return EffectiveDate using "%1$tFT00:00:00Z"

each.TaxLiability using "%1$.2f"

TaxIdentificationNumber using "%-9s"

FEINSuffix using "%03d"

LocalOutputCurrencyAmount using "%010.2f"

This all seems like format/masking so I'm unclear if you can strip certain string matches out. I thought I'd share anyway.

andy

Thanks for suggesting. I've definitely used the Java Format for converting to upper case; though curiously it can't be used to convert to lower case. We actually had an interesting chat about that on this thread if you're curious.

This is kind of a corner case scenario. The ask was to add the email body from the last message sent to a landmark list; which normally wouldn't be an issue, but we've customized the email body to include a styled HTML table, and that appears to create a conflict where the columns in the landmark list can't be resized.

I'll have to look at the HTML a little more closely. Might be able to resolve it by changing the underlying message HTML, though there's already historical data so that would only be a partial fix.

It would be nice to have some more string utils in LPL though; even just the ability to invoke replace / replaceAll java string methods.

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