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Regular expressions
Report filters has pros: quick and relatively easy, can be applied to historical data, will not trigger sampling, Cons: resticted to one report and the data in that report; you might need to know some basic regular expressions.
Analytics and regular expressions
Regular expressions are special operators that match or remove string parts of a field, as well as the rules or logic that govern all characters. Analytics use these expressions to match the data and perform an action when a match is achieved.
Expression |
Explanation |
Example |
. |
Matches any single character (letter, number or symbol) |
Ex: Bit.man = Bit1man, Bit@man, Bitoman…etc. |
* |
Matches zero or more of the previous item (or character). using the star means that the previous item doesn't need to be in the search |
Ex: Bit*man = Bitman, Bitrman, Bitrrman and even Biman since the previous item does not need to be in th search. |
+ |
Match one or more of the previous items |
Ex: Bit+man = Bitman, Bitrman or Bitrrman. But never Biman. |
? |
and |
Ex: Bit?man = Bit and man |
| |
Or |
Ex: Bit|man = Bit or man. |
Expression |
Explanation |
Example using Bitman |
^ |
Requires that your data be at the beginning after this field |
^Bitman can be Bitman1, Bitmann Bitman@, Bitmanne. But never SBitman. |
$ |
Requires that your data end before this field |
Bitman$, is SBitman, #1Bitman,everythingBitman but never Bitmann. |
Regular expressions are greedy. For example, Bitman matches Bitman and your_Bitman and Bitman_rules!. If Bitman is your regular expression, it is the equivalent of asking to match to all strings that contain Bitman. Therfore, you should use anchors whenever necessary, to get a more accurate match. ^Bitman$, which uses both a beginning ^ and ending $ anchor, will ensure that the expression has to start with Bitman and end with Bitman and include nothing else. So ^Bitman$ = only to Bitman
Expression |
Explanation |
Example using Bitman |
() |
Use parenthesis to create an item, instead of accepting the default |
Bitman(a|o) will match both Bitmana and Bitmano |
[] |
create a list of items to match to |
[A,B,C] = A, B and C |
- |
Use dashes with brackets to extend your list. Use dashes with brackets to extend your list |
[1-9] = 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
[A-Z] = All Alphabet |
Note: The symbol \ turns a regular expression character into an everyday character yahoo\.com keeps the dot from being a wildcard.
Additional RegEx information can be found at Google University: