Searches a value for text that matches a regular_expression, then replaces the matching text with new_text.
Regular expressions is a powerful language for matching patterns of partial words, whole words, or even multiple words. While basic regular expressions are straightforward to use, you can create complex expressions that are powerful but may be difficult to predict and debug --- and may be difficult for other people in your organization to understand.
So the best practice is: start with the basics, and add complexity only if you have no other choice.
Syntax
regex_replace("value", "regular_expression", "replacement")
Parameters
string and replacement can be any of the following:
- Static text, such as "GDN".
- An expression or formula column that returns a text value.
regular_expression is a case-sensitive RE2 regular expression (RE2 is an open source engine for processing regular expressions). Find examples and suggestions mentioned below. The complete list of operators and syntax is available on Github.
Surround the regular expression with quotation marks.
Regular expression syntax
Here's a list of the operators and syntax you may find useful when using regular expressions in Search Ads 360:
Wildcards
. Matches any single character (letter, number or symbol) goo.gle matches gooogle, goodgle, goo8gle * Matches zero or more of the previous item The default previous item is the previous character. goo*gle matches gooogle, goooogle + Matches one or more of previous item gooo+gle matches goooogle, but not google. ? Matches zero or one of the previous item labou?r matches both labor and labour | Inclusive "or" a|b matches a or b, or both a and b
Anchors
^ Line starts with ^site matches site but not mysite $ Line ends with site$ matches site but not sitescan
Grouping
() Capturing group Thank(s|you) matches both Thanks and Thankyou [] Set or range of characters in any order [ogl]+ matches google, goooogle, or logic - Expresses a range of characters [A-Z] creates a list for the uppercase English alphabet
Other
\ Escape special characters mysite\.com keeps the dot from being a wildcard \s Space character \s+.* matches one or more whitespace followed by zero or more characters \d Digit \d65\d matches "265" not "256" \w Word character (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _) $\w matches any string starting with a word character, such as "Campaign" but not "@Campaign" \b Word boundary \bcity\b matches " city " not "scarcity"
Example
regex_replace(ITEM_TITLE, "\bLabou?r\b", "Fun")
If ITEM_TITLE is "Ministry of Labour" or "Ministry of Labor", the function returns "Ministry of Fun".
If ITEM_TITLE is "Ministry of labor", the function does not find a match. (regular_expression in Search Ads 360 is case-sensitive)
Note that \b is needed to prevent matching "Laborious." For example:
regex_replace(ITEM_TITLE, "Labou?r", "Fun")
If ITEM_TITLE is "Laborious Hike", the function returns "Funious Hike".