Task: Data Extraction with Regex

Step 1

• Right-click the file, select Open with, and then select Choose another app.

Step 2

• Click More apps.

Step 3

• Select Notepad and click OK.

Step 4

• Press Ctrl + a in the text area to highlight all the text, and then Ctrl + c to copy it.

Step 5

• Browse to https://regex101.com/ and paste the text in the TEST STRING area.

Step 6

• In the REGULAR EXPRESSION field, type ^[\d{16,16} -]+$ to find all numbers that have 16 digits, and may include a hyphen (-).
  • Explanation:

The string uses the ^ symbol to look for the beginning of the line.
[ is the opening of the character set to look for these values.
\d is used to match the digits.
{16} is a quantifier (it matches the exact digits 16 times).
The space between } and – tells the expression to look for a space.
- tells the expression to look for a hyphen.
] is the closing of the character set.
+ matches one or more of the preceding values.
The string then looks for the end of the line using the $ symbol.

Step 7

• Type ^[AMHF].*$ to find all names, countries, and states beginning with A, M, H, and F.
  • Explanation:

The string uses the ^ symbol to look for the beginning of the line.
[AMHF] matches the single character (uppercase).
.*$ completes the string until the end of the line.

Step 8

• Type ^(\d+).*$ to find all phone numbers.
  • Explanation:

The string uses the ^ symbol to look for the beginning of the line.
\( the backslash escapes the character; the curved bracket (open parenthesis) matches that symbol.
\d matches a single digit.
+\) continues matching digits until the curved bracket (closing parenthesis) symbol is found.
.*$ completes the string until the end of the line.

Step 9

• Type ^3[47]\d{13}$ to find all American Express credit cards.
  • Explanation:

The string uses the ^ symbol to look for the beginning of the line.
3 is the number 3 at the beginning.
[47] matches either the number 4 or 7.
\d{13} matches 13 digits.
$ is the end of line.

Step 10

• Type ^4[0-9]{12}(\d{3})?$ to find all Visa credit cards.
  • Explanation:

The string uses the ^ symbol to look for the beginning of the line.
4 is the number 4 at the beginning.
[0-9]{12} matches 12 numbers, from 0 to 9 (like \d).
(\d{3})? groups another 3 digits, and the question mark indicates that this group does not necessarily need to be present.
$ is the end of line.

Step 11

• Type ^[\w.-]+@[\w.-]+.[\w]{2,}$ to find all emails in the document.
  • Explanation:

The string uses the ^ symbol to look for the beginning of the line.
[\w._-]+@ matches any character, digit, dot, underline, or hyphen (the plus sign continues the search until interrupted by the @ sign).
[\w._-]+\. matches every character, digit, dot, underline, or hyphen until it reaches a dot.
[\w]{2,} after the dot matches any alphanumeric character with two or more characters.