Automation glossary

Regular Expression (Regex)

A regular expression (regex) is a text pattern used to find, validate, or extract matching parts of a string.

In plain language

It describes the shape of text, such as “an order number like ORD-12345”, so a workflow can pull it out or check it.

Example

The pattern ORD-\d{5} extracts an order number from a customer email subject line.

Parsing · Formatter · Data Validation · Filter

Common misconception

A regex is not a reliable way to parse structured formats such as JSON or HTML; use a real parser for those.

Implementation guidance

Keep patterns simple, test against real samples including edge cases, anchor patterns when validating, and document what each pattern matches.

Primary references

MDN: Regular expressions

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