String manipulation methods reference

This topic describes workflow elements that can be used to manipulate string input and pass the manipulated string output to another element in a workflow.

While several elements are available in the palette, additional functions are available in the expression builder. BMC recommends using functions in expressions to maintain simple process designs. For more information, see Using-functions-to-build-custom-expressions.

String manipulation activities overview

Workflow designer provides a set of string manipulation activities grouped together on the Palette, in the String Utils section.

The following screenshot shows the String Utils workflow activities and a simple example of a workflow in which one of these activities is used:

This topic provides a full reference of the available string manipulation elements:

Index Of
Last Index Of
Insert
Json Parser
Length
Matches
Replace
Replace All
Substring
To Upper Case
To Lower Case
Epoch To String
Format Date Time

Index Of

Returns the first index within a search string in a specified text.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Input text.
	Search Characters	Required	String	String to search for.
	Start Position	Optional	Integer	Start position of the text to search from.
Output	Output	Not applicable	Integer	The first index within the Search Characters string found in the Text string starting from the position specified by the Start Position value. Returns -1 if the specified search characters are not found in the text. Click here to view examples of output... (null, ) = -1 (, null) = -1 ("", "") = 0 ("", ) = -1 (except when = "") ("aabaabaa", "a") = 0 ("aabaabaa", "b") = 2 ("aabaabaa", "ab") = 1 ("aabaabaa", "") = 0

Last Index Of

Returns the last index within a search string in a specified text.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Input text.
	Search Characters	Required	String	String to search for.
	Start Position	Optional	Integer	Start position of the text to search from.
Output	Output	Not applicable	Integer	The last index within the Search Characters string found in the Text string starting from the position specified by the Start Position value. Returns -1 if no match is found. Click here to view examples of output... (null, , ) = -1 (, null, ) = -1 ("aabaabaa", "a", 8) = 7 ("aabaabaa", "b", 8) = 5 ("aabaabaa", "ab", 8) = 4 ("aabaabaa", "b", 9) = 5 ("aabaabaa", "b", -1) = -1 ("aabaabaa", "a", 0) = 0 ("aabaabaa", "b", 0) = -1 ("aabaabaa", "b", 1) = -1 ("aabaabaa", "b", 2) = 2 ("aabaabaa", "ba", 2) = -1 ("aabaabaa", "ba", 2) = 2

Insert

Inserts a string in a specified text.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Input text.
	Offset	Optional	Integer	The distance between the beginning of the text and a string to be inserted. The offset argument must be greater than or equal to 0, and less than or equal to the length of the sequence.
	Insertion	Required	String	Text to insert.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	The text with inserted string.

Json Parser

Retrieves a string from a specified Json.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Json	Required	Array	Json string.
	Path For Search	Required	String	A path from the Json string to retrieve. For information about syntax for this field, see JsonPath syntax .
	Limit	Optional	Integer	1 is the default value.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	Retrieves the specified string from the Json.

For an example workflow, see Using-the-Json-Parser-string-manipulation-method-to-retrieve-information.

Length

Counts the character length of a specified text.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Input string text.
Output	Output	Not applicable	Integer	A count of characters in a specified input string.

Matches

Attempts to match the input string against a regular expression, instead of finding a subsequent match. The regular expression follows the rules of Java regular expressions.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Input text.
Input	Regexp	Required	String	Regular expression to match the input text.
Output	Output	Not applicable	Integer	Returns 1 if true, and 0 if false.

Replace

Replaces all occurrences of a string within another string.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Text to search and replace in. The text string can be empty.
	Search Text	Required	String	Search string to search for.
	Replacement	Required	String	String to replace it with.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	The text with replacements.

Replace All

Replaces every substring of a text string that matches the given regular expression with the given replacement.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	The text to modify.
	Regexp	Required	String	Regular expression matching the text to be replaced.
	Replacement	Required	String	Replacement string to be substituted for each match.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	The text with any processed replacements. Click here to view examples of output... (null, , ) = null ("any", null, ) = "any" ("any", , null) = "any" ("", "", "zzz") = "zzz" ("", ".", "zzz") = "zzz" ("", ".+", "zzz") = "" ("abc", "", "ZZ") = "ZZaZZbZZcZZ" ("<__>\n<__>", "<.>", "z") = "z\nz" ("<__>\n<__>", "(?s)<.*>", "z") = "z" ("ABCabc123", "[a-z]", "_") = "ABC___123" ("ABCabc123", "[^A-Z0-9]+", "_") = "ABC_123" ("ABCabc123", "[^A-Z0-9]+", "") = "ABC123" ("Lorem ipsum dolor sit", "( +)([a-z]+)", "_$2") = "Lorem_ipsum_dolor_sit"

Substring

Retrieves a substring from a specified text.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Text to search in.
	Start Position	Optional	Integer	The position to start from. A negative start position can be used to start characters from the end of the string.
	End Position	Optional	Integer	The position to end at.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	A string between a specified start position and end position retrieved from the input text. Click here to view examples of output... (null, ) = null ("", ) = "" ("abc", 0) = "abc" ("abc", 2) = "c" ("abc", 4) = "" ("abc", -2) = "bc" ("abc", -4) = "abc"

To Upper Case

Converts input text string to uppercase text.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Input text.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	Converted text.

To Lower Case

Converts input text string to lowercase text.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Text	Required	String	Input text.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	Converted text.

Epoch To String

Converts the epoch/UNIX timestamp to a formatted date.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Epoch In Seconds	Required	Integer	The epoch/UNIX timestamp. For example, 1572385070
	Time Zone	Optional	String	The timezone of the output. For example, America/Vancouver, Europe/Berlin, Asia/Qatar If a value is not specified, the output will use the UTC time zone.
	Datetime Format	Optional	String	The date and time format of the output. Use the Java date format. For example, "EEE, MMM d, ''yy"—Wed, Jul 4, '01 If a format is not specified, the M-dd-yy format is used (for example, November-22-19).
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	The epoch timestamp in string format. For example, 1572385070 is converted to November-22-19

Format Date Time

Converts an input date and time string to new formatted date and time.

Parameter type	Parameter name	Required	Data type	Description
Input	Date Time	Required	String	Date and time input to convert.
	Input Time Zone	Optional	String	The timezone of the input. If input has timezone, this will be ignored. Defaults to UTC time zone.
	Input Date Format	Optional	String	The date and time format of the input. Used for parsing input with a custom date format. Defaults to the standard ISO 8601 date formats.
	Output Time Zone	Optional	String	The timezone of the output.
	Output Date Format	Optional	String	The date and time format of the output.
	Locale	Optional	String	Locale of the output. Defaults to en_US locale.
Output	Output	Not applicable	String	The newly formatted date and time with the timezone offset.

Example:

Parameter type	Parameter name
Input	Date Time	2042-09-24T12:15:00-0500
	Input Time Zone	null
	Input Date Format	null
	Output Time Zone	-08:00
	Output Date Format	MM-dd-yyyy hh:mm a
	Locale	null
Output	Output	09-24-2042 09:15 AM

Example: Workflow that uses the Json Parser activity

The following example shows how the Json Parser method is used in a workflow.

The Send HTTP Request activity sends its Json output to the Json Parser activity. The Json Parser activity searches for the Json string that the Json Path defines, and sends no more than three returned Json strings (the limit defined in the Limit parameter) to the Send In App notification activity.

Click here to view JSON of this workflow.

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You can save a copy of a service that uses this workflow, export it to your environment, and see how it works.

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