Search SubStrings between defined Strings or at the end of defined strings with Vbscript compatible Regular expression

Question

I do have to parse specific Information from Report headers in Text Format
Since I do have to perform this through Regular expressions in VB Script I cannot make use of the Look Ahead features of Regex.

Typical use cases to cover for Regular expressions would be

1) User Name : Clark Kent
Extracted by Regex: "Clark Kent" for any line Starting with "User Name :"
2) User Name Clark Kent
Extracted by Regex: "Clark Kent" for any line Starting with "User Name" and delete all leading and trailing blanks from " Clark Kent "
3) User Name: Clark Kent Sample ID : 1234
Extracted by Regex: "Clark Kent" from any line starting with "Clark Kent" and Ending with "SampleID :"

Any Help for this example would be highly appreciated

I tried to find examples and studied the command reference, but almost all hints for this hint point to LOOKBEHIND , but this is not available in VB — mattrupp
– mattrupp, Commented Aug 18, 2014 at 14:37
All three of your examples start with "User Name" so I don't fully understand the third scenario. How is this different? — arco444
– arco444, Commented Aug 18, 2014 at 14:41
Scenario 1 and 2 should find anything behind the identifier "User Name" or "User Name :" Scenario 3: Find anything BETWEEN "Clark Kent" and the string(identifier) "SampleID :" — mattrupp
– mattrupp, Commented Aug 18, 2014 at 14:53

Bond · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-20 17:34:13Z

1

My regex skills aren't the greatest but this pattern works for your three examples. It currently only looks for and returns <first name><space><last name>, but it could be adapted to handle more complicated scenarios.

With New RegExp
    .Pattern = "^User Name\s*:?\s*(\w+\s\w+)\s*(?:Sample ID)?"
    Set Matches = .Execute(strLine)
End With

If Matches.Count > 0 Then strName = Matches(0).SubMatches(0)

answered Aug 20, 2014 at 17:34

Bond

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