Regular Expression RegEx and Lync 2010

I’m about to take a walk around Regular Expressions widely known as RegEx in Microsoft Lync Server 2013, Microsoft Lync Server 2010, like Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Regular Expressions can be used for phone number matching and translation. The Regular Expression pattern syntax is powerful and complex to cover almost any dialing criteria. Use of Regular Expressions for phone number manipulation is supported in the following areas:

• Dial Plan Normalization Rules,
• Voice Routes Pattern Match, and
• Trunk Configuration Translation Rules.

In this Article:

Egypt Dial Plan

Testing Your RegularExpression

Regular Expression Syntax

Wildcard .

Anchors ^, $

Marked Group (expr)

Non-Marking Grouping (?: )

Shorthand Character Classes \d, \w, \s

Repeaters *,+,?,{}

Non-Greedy Repeats

Back References \1, \2, \n

Alternation |

Character Sets [a-z], [A-Z], [0-9]

Negation ^

Escapes \

References

Egypt Dial Plan

Below is a table describes a quick examples for Regular Expressions; Note that:

• Egypt Country Code is 20
• Cairo Area Code is 2 and dial plan is 8 numbers length
• Alexandria Area Code is 3 and dial plan is 7 numbers length
• Banha Area Code is 13 and dial plan is 7 numbers length

RuleName	Description	Pattern	Translation	Example
4digitExtension	Translates 4-digit extensions	^(\d{4})$	+2023303$1	3045 is translated to +20233033045
5digitExtension	Translates 5-digit extensions	^3(\d{4})$	+2023308$1	33045 is translated to +20233083045
8digitcallingCairo	Translates 8-digit numbers to Cairo local number (area code=2)	^(\d{8})$	+202$1	33033045 is translated to +20233033045
7digitcallingAlexandria	Translates 7-digit numbers to Alexandria local number (area code=3)	^(\d{7})$	+203$1	33033045 is translated to +20333033045
7digitcallingBanha	Translates 7-digit numbers to Banha local number (area code=13)	^(\d{7})$	+2013$1	33033045 is translated to +201333033045
LDCallingEG	Translates numbers with LD prefix in Egypt	^2(\d{10,11})$	+2$1	20233033045 is translated to +20233033045 and 201333033045 is translated to +201333033045
IntlCallingEG	Translates numbers with international prefix in Egypt (48)	^48(\d*)$	+$1	48914412345678 is translated to +914412345678
HQOperator	Translates 0 to HQ Operator	^0$	+20233033045	0 is translated to +20233033045
SharkeyaSitePrefix	Translates numbers with on-net prefix (6) and Sharkeya site code (11)	^611(\d{4})$	+2055234$1	6111234 is translated to +20552341234
MansouraSitePrefix	Translates numbers with on-net prefix (6) and Mansoura site code (22)	^622(\d{4})$	+2050234$1	6221234 is translated to +20502341234
LoxurSitePrefix	Translates numbers with on-net prefix (6) and Luxor site code (33)	^633(\d{4})$	+2095234$1	6331234 is translated to +20952341234

 

Testing Your Regular Expression:

There are many great tools to test your RegEx. Regexhero.net has an excellent online tool for testing your expression here

Now let’s have a deep dive onto RegEx.

Regular Expression Syntax

In regular expressions, all characters match themselves except

for the following special characters:

. [ { ( ) * + ? | ^ $ \

Wildcard .

The single character ‘.’ when used outside of a character set will match any single character.

Pattern	Description
.	Matches any single character
\.	Matches the literal period . character

 

Anchors ^, $

The anchor characters are used to match the beginning or end of a line.

Pattern	Description
^	Matches the start of a line, not including the first character of the line
$	Matches the end of a line, not including the last character of the line

Marked Group (expr)

A section beginning with open parenthesis ( and ending with a closed parenthesis ) acts as a Marked Group. The string that matches the group pattern is preserved for later use. Marked Groups can also be repeated, or referred to by a Back-Reference..

Pattern	Description
( )	Used to group expressions and to capture a set of characters for use in a back-reference.
\ (	Matches the open parenthesis ( character
\ )	Matches the close parenthesis ) character

Non-Marking Grouping (?: )

A Marked Group is useful to lexically group part of a regular expression, but has the side-effect of spitting out an extra field in the result. As an alternative, you can lexically group part of a regular expression, without generating a marked group by using (?: and ) , for example (?:ab)+ repeats the “ab” match phrase without splitting out a separate marked group.

Pattern	Description
(?: )	Used to group expressions without capturing them for a back-reference

Shorthand Character Classes \d,\w, \s

These expressions provide a shorthand way to describe a class of characters, for example; \d matches any numeric digit. The capital versions of these shorthand express the negative version of this character, for example; \D matches any non-digit character.

Pattern	Description
\d	Matches a numeric digit (0 to 9)
\w	Matches a word character (letters, digits, underscores)
\s	Matches a whitespace character (space, tab, line breaks)
\D	Matches a non-numeric character (no number 0 to 9)
\W	Matches a non-word character (not a letter, digit or underscore)
\S	Matches a non-whitespace character (not a space, tab or line break)

The \d shorthand is commonly used with the curly bracket repeater expression to match a specific number of digits, for example: \d{4} to match four consecutive digits.

Repeaters *,+,?,{}

The repeater characters ( *, +, ?, and {} ) enable matching of a character, expression or character class that is repeated.

Pattern	Description
*	Match the preceding character or expression zero to unlimited times.
+	Match the preceding character or expression one to unlimited times.
{n}	Match the preceding character or expression exactly n times
{n,m}	Match the preceding character or expression at least n times and at most m times
{n,}	Match the preceding character or expression at least n times and unlimited times
?	Optionally match the preceding character or expression

* Examples

The * operator matches the preceding atom zero or more times,

for example the expression a*b matches the following input:

Pattern	Input	Match?
a*b	b	Yes
a*b	ab	Yes
a*b	aaaaaaaab	Yes
a*b	acb	No
a*b	aaaaaaacb	No

+ Examples

The + operator matches the preceding atom one or more times, for example the expression a+b matches the following input:

Pattern	Input	Match?
a+b	b	No
a+b	ab	Yes
a+b	aaaaaaaab	Yes
a+b	acb	No
a+b	aaaaaaacb	No

? Examples

The ? operator matches the preceding

atom zero or one times, for example the expression ca?b matches the following input:

Pattern	Input	Match?
ca?b	b	No
ca?b	ab	No
ca?b	cb	Yes
ca?b	cab	Yes
ca?b	caab	No

{ } Examples

The curly bracket repeaters allow matching of a character or expression a specific number of times.

Pattern	Input	Match?
h{4}	hhhh	Yes
h{4}	hh	No
h{4}	hhhhh	No
Pattern	Input	Match?
h{2,5}	hhhh	Yes
h{2,5}	hh	Yes
h{2,5}	hhhhh	Yes
h{2,5}	h	No
h{2,5}	hhhhhh	No

Pattern	Input	Match?
h{3,}	hh	No
h{3,}	hhh	Yes
h{3,}	hhhhhh	Yes
h{3,}	hhhhhhhhhh	Yes

Non-Greedy Repeats

The normal repeat operators try to match as much input as possible, and so are described as “greedy” expressions. Adding a question mark ? after a repeater symbol alters this matching behavior and makes the expression match as little input as possible while still producing a match. A regular expression altered in this way is sometimes referred to as a “lazy” expression.

Pattern	Description
*?	Matches the previous character or expression zero or more times, while consuming as little input as possible
+?	Matches the previous character or expression one or more times, while consuming as little input as possible
??	Matches the previous character or expression zero or one times, while consuming as little input as possible
{n,}?	Matches the previous character or expression n or more times, while consuming as little input as possible
{n,m}?	Matches the previous character or expression at least n and at most m times, while consuming as little input as possible

Back References \1, \2, \n

An escape character followed by a digit n, where n is in the range 1-9, matches the same string that was matched by Marked Group. Marked Groups are created with an open and close parenthesis pair ().

Pattern	Description
\1	Outputs the content of the first capturing marked group
\2	Outputs the content of the second capturing marked group
\n	Outputs the content of the n capturing marked group (n must be a number, not the character n)

Examples

Pattern	Input	Match?
^(a*).*\1$	aaabbaaa	Yes
^(a*).*\1$	aaabba	No

Alternation |

The | operator match the characters or expressions to the left and right of the | symbol.

Pattern	Description
|	Match the character or expression on either side of the | character
Pattern	Input	Match?
abc|def	abc	Yes
abc|def	def	Yes

The alternation operator is typically used with parenthesis to separate the alternate expressions from the rest of the matching expression.

Pattern	Description
( | )	Match the character or expression on either side of the | character, contained within the parenthesis ( )
Pattern	Input	Match?
(abc|def)	abc	Yes
(abc|def)	def	Yes
(abc|def)	ab	No
(abc|def)	ef	No
a(bc|de)f	abcf	Yes
a(bc|de)f	adef	Yes
a(bc|de)f	abcdef	No
a(bc|de)f	af	No
a(bc|de)f	acdf	No

Character Sets [a-z], [A-Z], [0-9]

A character set is a bracket-expression starting with [ and ending with ], it defines a set of characters, and matches any single character that is a member of that set.

Pattern	Description
[a-z]	Matches any lowercase letter in the range ‘a’ to ‘z’
[A-Z]	Matches any UPPERCASE letter in the range ‘A’ to ‘Z’
[a-c]	Matches any character in the range ‘a’ to ‘c’
[abc]	Matches any of the characters ‘a’, ‘b’, or ‘c’
[0-9]	Matches any number in the range ‘0’ to ‘9’
[5-8]	Matches any number in the range ‘5’ to ‘8’
[1234]	Matches any of the numbers ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ or ‘4’
[0-9a-zA-Z]	Matches any character in the ranges ‘0’ to ‘9’, ‘a’ to ‘z’ or ‘A’ to ‘Z’

Negation ^

This expression is used within a square bracket pair to match any character that is not in the range or set of characters, for example; The regular expression [^a-c] matches any character that is not in the range a-c.

Pattern	Description
[^]	Matches any character that is not shown after the caret ^ character
Pattern	Input	Match?
[^a-z]	1	Yes
[^a-z]	9	Yes
[^a-z]	B	Yes (since ‘B’ is not lowercase)
[^1-9]	4	No
[^1-9]	0	Yes (since ‘0’ is not in the range 1 through 9)
[^@]	@	No
[^<]	<	No
[^>]	>	No

Escapes \

Any special character preceded by an escape character ‘\’ shall match itself. The special characters are as follows:

. [ { ( ) * + ? | ^ $ \
Pattern	Description
\	If the following character is a special character, ignore its special meaning and match the literal character.
\.	Match the ‘.’ character literally
\[	Match the ‘[‘ character literally
\{	Match the ‘{‘ character literally
\(	Match the ‘(‘ character literally
\)	Match the ‘)’ character literally
\*	Match the ‘*’ character literally
\+	Match the ‘)’ character literally
\|	Match the ‘|’ character literally
\^	Match the ‘^’ character literally
\$	Match the ‘$’ character literally
\\	Match the ‘\’ character literally

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression,

http://www.regular-expressions.info/,

https://support.net.com/display/VXDOC/Understanding+Regular+Expressions

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About Hany Saqr

Near to 10 years in the IT service delivery, and since 2013, I have managed 25 experts and with them, we delivered 700 successful projects, through 10k Man days of service, added to $100M hardware to draw a 700 beautiful IT infrastructure architecture. Experience and result-oriented approach, side by side with professionalism and team-work achieved a strong track record in developing and implementing successful strategic business plans, demonstrating a strong technical, leadership, business, communication, presentation and analytical competencies.

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