Rule box category Use regular expressions

The category Use regular expressions contains all rule boxes that let you use regex to search, match, and replace values in your attributes. Some rule boxes in this category let you use regex to set age groups, conditions, gender, and size types and prepare your product data for Google Merchant Center.

A regular expression (regex) is a sequence of characters that uses specific syntax or structure rules to define a search pattern. Using a regex, you can search your data for specific text pattern matches instead of exact text matches.

An example of a regex is /([A-Z])\w+/. If you run a search in a text and use this regular expression, you can find all words in the searched text that have uppercase letters from A to Z. In Productsup, you can use this regex as is or change the opening and closing forward slashes to hash signs: #([A-Z])\w+#.

To work with regex easier, you can get suggestions for necessary regular expressions using the Regex generator:

The Preg Match rule box searches the values of the current attribute to match the pattern you specified with a regex. When the platform finds a match in a value, it preserves the matching part of the value and removes the rest. The rule box stops scanning a value as soon as it finds a first match.

If an attribute contains long-string values and you want the platform to display only specific parts of those values, you can use this rule box.

For example, you want to extract color and size information from your description attribute. You can do so using the Preg Match rule box with different regular expressions and capturing groups:

The Preg Match All rule box searches the values of the current attribute to match the pattern you specified with a regex. When the platform finds all matches of the regex in a value, it preserves the matching parts of the value and removes the rest.

If an attribute contains long-string values and you want the platform to display only specific parts of those values, you can use this rule box.

For example, you want to extract phone numbers from the following values in your phone attribute. You can achieve this with the Preg Match All rule box and compare using it to the Preg Match rule box result:

The Preg Match All rule box returns a longer string because it looks for all matches within a value, while the Preg Match rule box stops after finding the first match.

The Preg Replace rule box searches the values of the current attribute with a regex and replaces all the matches the platform finds with a value of your choice.

For example, you don't want your description attribute to mention the exact number of settings for your food processors if the products have fewer than 8 settings. Instead, you want your description attribute values to say under 8. You can achieve this with the following setup of the Preg Replace rule box:

You can use the Preg Replace rule box to add a thousands separator to numbers with many digits:

According to Google's requirements, the GTINs you submit for your products shouldn't be in the restricted or coupon ranges. See GTIN [gtin] for more information.

You can use the Preg Replace rule box to remove GTINs in the restricted and coupon ranges from your gtin attribute:

The Set Value if Match (RegEx) rule box assigns a static value in the current attribute if a selected attribute contains a regex match.

For example, you can use the Set Value if Match (RegEx) rule box to get the price_range attribute to contain information on whether a product is cheap or expensive based on the values of the price attribute.

The regex /\b(?:0*[1-9]|[12][0-9])\$/ lets the rule box search the price attribute for products that cost less than 30$. If the platform finds a product that costs less than that, it assigns the value cheap to this product in the price_range attribute. If the platform discovers products that don't match the regex and cost 30$ or more, such products get the value expensive.

The following rule boxes can help you prepare your data for Google Merchant Center using regex. See Rule box category Google Merchant Center for more information on rule boxes for GMC.

Google accepts the following values for the age_group attribute:

With the Set Age Group by Regex rule box, you can use regular expressions to search your current values for matches and replace them with corresponding valid age groups accepted by Google.

For example, you have different non-valid values in the age_group attribute, and you need to assign a valid age group to each product based on its current value.

With the regular expressions /(women|female|men|male|adult|adults)/g and /(children|child|kid|kids|boy|girl|boys|girls)/, you can search your current values for the possible alternatives to the valid adult and kids values and then change the current values to the appropriate valid age group.

Google accepts the following values for the condition attribute:

With the Set Condition by Regex rule box, you can use regular expressions to search your current values for matches and replace them with corresponding valid conditions accepted by Google.

For example, you have different non-valid values in the condition attribute, and you need to assign a valid condition type to each product based on its current value.

With the regular expressions /(from manufacturer|packaged|new)/, /(use|used)/, and /(refurbished|repaired|returned)/, you can search your current values for the possible variants of the valid new, used, and refurbished values and then change the current values to the appropriate valid conditions.

Google accepts the following values for the gender attribute:

With the Set Gender by Regex rule box, you can use regular expressions to search your current values for matches and replace them with corresponding valid gender options accepted by Google. You need to provide regex only for male and female gender options. Products with no matches of these regular expressions get the value unisex.

For example, you have different non-valid values in the gender attribute, and you need to assign a valid gender option to each product based on its current value.

With the regular expressions /\b(?:women|female|F)\b/ and /\b(?:men|male|M)\b/, you can search your current values for the possible variants of the valid female and male values and then change the current values to the appropriate valid gender option. The products that don't contain regex matches get the value unisex.

Google accepts the following values for the size_type attribute:

With the Set Size Type by Regex rule box, you can use regular expressions to search your current values for matches and replace them with corresponding valid size types accepted by Google.

For example, you have different non-valid values in the size_type attribute, and you need to assign a valid size type to each product based on its current value.

With the regular expressions /(regular|reg|usual)/, /(petite|smaller)/, /(plus|bigger)/, and /(maternity)/, you can search your current values for the possible variants of these valid size types and then change the current values to the appropriate valid size types.