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| <div class="section"> |
| <h1 id="regex">21. Regular Expressions<a class="sectionlink" href="#regex" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h1> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="overview">21.1 Overview<a class="sectionlink" href="#overview" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| JMeter includes the pattern matching software <a href="http://attic.apache.org/projects/jakarta-oro.html">Apache Jakarta ORO</a> |
| |
| <br> |
| There is some documentation for this on the Jakarta web-site, for example |
| <a href="http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/scrapbook/jakarta-oro-2.0.6/docs/api/org/apache/oro/text/regex/package-summary.html"> |
| a summary of the pattern matching characters</a> |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| There is also documentation on an older incarnation of the product at |
| <a href="http://www.savarese.org/oro/docs/OROMatcher/index.html">OROMatcher User's guide</a>, which might prove useful. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The pattern matching is very similar to the pattern matching in Perl. |
| A full installation of Perl will include plenty of documentation on regular expressions - look for <span class="code">perlrequick</span>, |
| <span class="code">perlretut</span>, <span class="code">perlre</span> and <span class="code">perlreref</span>. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| It is worth stressing the difference between "<em>contains</em>" and "<em>matches</em>", as used on the Response Assertion test element: |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt>"<em>contains</em>"</dt> |
| <dd> means that the regular expression matched at least some part of the target, |
| so '<span class="code">alphabet</span>' "<em>contains</em>" '<span class="code">ph.b.</span>' because the regular expression matches the substring '<span class="code">phabe</span>'. |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| "<em>matches</em>"</dt> |
| <dd> means that the regular expression matched the whole target. |
| So '<span class="code">alphabet</span>' is "<em>matched</em>" by '<span class="code">al.*t</span>'. |
| </dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p>In this case, it is equivalent to wrapping the regular expression in <span class="code">^</span> and <span class="code">$</span>, viz '<span class="code">^al.*t$</span>'. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>However, this is not always the case. |
| For example, the regular expression '<span class="code">alp|.lp.*</span>' is "<em>contained</em>" in '<span class="code">alphabet</span>', |
| but does not "<em>match</em>" '<span class="code">alphabet</span>'. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>Why? Because when the pattern matcher finds the sequence '<span class="code">alp</span>' in '<span class="code">alphabet</span>', it stops trying any other |
| combinations - and '<span class="code">alp</span>' is not the same as '<span class="code">alphabet</span>', as it does not include '<span class="code">habet</span>'. |
| </p> |
| |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| <div class="note"> |
| Unlike Perl, there is no need to (i.e. do not) enclose the regular expression in <span class="code">//</span>. |
| </div> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| |
| <p> |
| So how does one use the modifiers <span class="code">ismx</span> etc. if there is no trailing <span class="code">/</span>? |
| The solution is to use <i>extended regular expressions</i>, i.e. <span class="code">/abc/i</span> becomes <span class="code">(?i)abc</span>. |
| See also <a href="#placement">Placement of modifiers</a> below. |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="examples">21.2 Examples<a class="sectionlink" href="#examples" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <h3>Extract single string</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Suppose you want to match the following portion of a web-page: |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file" value="readme.txt"></span> |
| |
| <br> |
| and you want to extract <span class="code">readme.txt</span>. |
| <br> |
| A suitable regular expression would be: |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file" value="(.+?)"></span> |
| |
| <p> |
| The special characters above are: |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(</span> and <span class="code">)</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>these enclose the portion of the match string to be returned</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">.</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>match any character</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">+</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>one or more times</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">?</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>don't be greedy, i.e. stop when first match succeeds</dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p> |
| Note: without the <span class="code">?</span>, the <span class="code">.+</span> would continue past the first <span class="code">"></span> |
| until it found the last possible <span class="code">"></span> - which is probably not what was intended. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Note: although the above expression works, it's more efficient to use the following expression: |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file" value="([^"]+)"></span> |
| where<br> |
| |
| <span class="code">[^"]</span> - means match anything except <span class="code">"</span> |
| <br> |
| In this case, the matching engine can stop looking as soon as it sees the first <span class="code">"</span>, |
| whereas in the previous case the engine has to check that it has found <span class="code">"></span> rather than say <span class="code">" ></span>. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h3>Extract multiple strings</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Suppose you want to match the following portion of a web-page:<br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file.name" value="readme.txt"</span> |
| and you want to extract both <span class="code">file.name</span> and <span class="code">readme.txt</span>. |
| <br> |
| A suitable regular expression would be: |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="([^"]+)" value="([^"]+)"</span> |
| |
| <br> |
| This would create 2 groups, which could be used in the JMeter Regular Expression Extractor template as <span class="code">$1$</span> and <span class="code">$2$</span>. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The JMeter Regex Extractor saves the values of the groups in additional variables. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| For example, assume: |
| </p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| |
| <li>Reference Name: <span class="code">MYREF</span> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li>Regex: <span class="code">name="(.+?)" value="(.+?)"</span> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li>Template: <span class="code">$1$$2$</span> |
| </li> |
| |
| </ul> |
| |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| <div class="note">Do not enclose the regular expression in <span class="code">/ /</span> |
| </div> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| |
| <p> |
| The following variables would be set: |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">file.namereadme.txt</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF_g0</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">name="file.name" value="readme.txt"</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF_g1</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">file.name</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF_g2</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">readme.txt</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| These variables can be referred to later on in the JMeter test plan, as <span class="code">${MYREF}</span>, <span class="code">${MYREF_g1}</span> etc. |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="line_mode">21.3 Line mode<a class="sectionlink" href="#line_mode" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p>The pattern matching behaves in various slightly different ways, |
| depending on the setting of the multi-line and single-line modifiers. |
| Note that the single-line and multi-line operators have nothing to do with each other; |
| they can be specified independently. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h3>Single-line mode</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Single-line mode only affects how the '<span class="code">.</span>' meta-character is interpreted. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Default behaviour is that '<span class="code">.</span>' matches any character except newline. |
| In single-line mode, '<span class="code">.</span>' also matches newline. |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| <h3>Multi-line mode</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Multi-line mode only affects how the meta-characters '<span class="code">^</span>' and '<span class="code">$</span>' are interpreted. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Default behaviour is that '<span class="code">^</span>' and '<span class="code">$</span>' only match at the very beginning and end of the string. |
| When Multi-line mode is used, the '<span class="code">^</span>' metacharacter matches at the beginning of every line, |
| and the '<span class="code">$</span>' metacharacter matches at the end of every line.</p> |
| |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="meta_chars">21.4 Meta characters<a class="sectionlink" href="#meta_chars" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| Regular expressions use certain characters as meta characters - these characters have a special meaning to the RE engine. |
| Such characters must be escaped by preceding them with <span class="code">\</span> (backslash) in order to treat them as ordinary characters. |
| Here is a list of the meta characters and their meaning (please check the ORO documentation if in doubt). |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(</span> and <span class="code">)</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>grouping</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">[</span> and <span class="code">]</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>character classes</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">{</span> and <span class="code">}</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>repetition</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">*</span>, <span class="code">+</span> and <span class="code">?</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>repetition</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">.</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>wild-card character</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">\</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>escape character</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">|</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>alternatives</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">^</span> and <span class="code">$</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>start and end of string or line</dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| <div class="note"> |
| Please note that ORO does not support the <span class="code">\Q</span> and <span class="code">\E</span> meta-characters. |
| [In other RE engines, these can be used to quote a portion of an RE so that the meta-characters stand for themselves.] |
| You can use function to do the equivalent, see <a href="functions.html#__escapeOroRegexpChars">${__escapeOroRegexpChars(valueToEscape)}</a>. |
| </div> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| |
| <p> |
| The following Perl5 extended regular expressions are supported by ORO. |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?#text)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd>An embedded comment causing text to be ignored.</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?:regexp)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd>Groups things like "<span class="code">()</span>" but doesn't cause the group match to be saved.</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?=regexp)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd>A zero-width positive lookahead assertion. For example, <span class="code">\w+(?=\s)</span> matches a word followed by whitespace, without including whitespace in the MatchResult.</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?!regexp)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd>A zero-width negative lookahead assertion. For example <span class="code">foo(?!bar)</span> matches any occurrence of "<span class="code">foo</span>" that |
| isn't followed by "<span class="code">bar</span>". Remember that this is a zero-width assertion, which means that <span class="code">a(?!b)d</span> will |
| match <span class="code">ad</span> because <span class="code">a</span> is followed by a character that is not <span class="code">b</span> (the <span class="code">d</span>) and a <span class="code">d</span> |
| follows the zero-width assertion.</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?imsx)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd>One or more embedded pattern-match modifiers. <span class="code">i</span> enables case insensitivity, <span class="code">m</span> enables multiline treatment |
| of the input, <span class="code">s</span> enables single line treatment of the input, and <span class="code">x</span> enables extended whitespace comments.</dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <b>Note that <span class="code">(?<=regexp)</span> - lookbehind - is not supported.</b> |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="placement">21.5 Placement of modifiers<a class="sectionlink" href="#placement" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| Modifiers can be placed anywhere in the regex, and apply from that point onwards. |
| [A bug in ORO means that they cannot be used at the very end of the regex. |
| However they would have no effect there anyway.] |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The single-line <span class="code">(?s)</span> and multi-line <span class="code">(?m)</span> modifiers are normally placed at the start of the regex. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The ignore-case modifier <span class="code">(?i)</span> may be usefully applied to just part of a regex, |
| for example:</p> |
| |
| <pre class="source"> |
| Match ExAct case or (?i)ArBiTrARY(?-i) case |
| </pre> |
| would match <span class="code">Match ExAct case or arbitrary case</span> as well as <span class="code">Match ExAct case or ARBitrary case</span>, but not <span class="code">Match exact case or ArBiTrARY case</span>. |
| </div> |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="section"> |
| <h1 id="testing_expressions">21.6 Testing Regular Expressions<a class="sectionlink" href="#testing_expressions" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h1> |
| |
| <p> |
| Since JMeter 2.4, the listener <a href="component_reference.html#View_Results_Tree">View Results Tree</a> |
| include a RegExp Tester to test regular expressions directly on sampler response data. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| There is a <a href="http://www.regexplanet.com/advanced/java/index.html">Website</a> to test Java Regular expressions. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Another approach is to use a simple test plan to test the regular expressions. |
| The Java Request sampler can be used to generate a sample, or the HTTP Sampler can be used to load a file. |
| Add a Debug Sampler and a Tree View Listener and changes to the regular expression can be tested quickly, |
| without needing to access any external servers. |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
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