Value Parser, or Regular Expressions, is an advanced way to search and replace text.
How to Use the Value Parser Tool
In the tool settings, you can specify:
What to replace: symbols, characters, words, custom patterns (templates), etc.
Replace with: symbols, characters, custom patterns (templates), etc.
While simple character search works like a standard "Find and replace", Regular Expressions are excellent because they allow you to search for multiple characters, exclude them, add rules, and much more.
Examples of Custom Search Templates
x|y– Searches for x or y.x(?=y)– Searches for x only if it is followed by y.[a-d]– Character range. Square brackets mean "any character from the list".\w+@\w+\.\w+– Searches for an email address.([0-3]\d)\.([01]\d)\.(\d{4})– Searches for a date in dd.mm.yyyy format.(8|+7|7)[0-9]{7,10}– Searches for a phone number in 8********** or +7********** format.
There are countless templates and combinations for replacing text, and you can find many resources online.
Examples of Custom Value Parsing Patterns
Case 1: Convert Date Format from DD.MM.YYYY to YYYY_MM_DD
Tool settings: The "What to replace" and "Replace with" fields use custom templates.
Template: ([0-3]\d)\.([01]\d)\.(\d{4})
Replace with: $3_$2_$1
The result will look like this:
Case 2: Remove Tags from an Email
What to replace:
\<(\/?[^>]+)>|(\n)|(\s{4,})
Replace with: Space.
Case 3: Extract a Domain from a URL
What to replace: ^https?://([^/]+)/.*$
Replace with: $1
This pattern extracts the domain name from a full URL that contains a path or parameters. For example, from https://example.org/id25 you will get: example.org