DPL Array

ARRAY { matcher_expr … }

The ARRAY allows parsing repeated sequences of variable number data elements, specified by a pattern supplied as an argument.

The specified pattern is applied repeatedly until:

  • an unmatch occurs, or
  • the maximum number of matches has been reached.

output type

quantifier

configuration

array

no default value, must be explicitly set. The array can hold a maximum of 32768 elements.

locale = string specifying IETF BCP 47 language tag enclosed in single or double quotes (see the list here). The default locale is English.

charset = character set name enclosed in single or double quotes (for example charset="ISO-8859-1")

Array captures exported data elements in array data type. You must assign an export name to ARRAY to make exported members visible for the query.

Example

Consider data where each line has integers, separated by forward slash "/" (i.e an array), where:

  • There is no separator after the last integer.
  • The number of integers can be different on each line but has to be no less than 3 and no more than 5. Additionally, the integers may be omitted (missing) in the array.
101/102/103
201//203//205
/302/303/304

In the pattern, we define an ARRAY (lines 1 and 4). It matches for an integer (which can be missing since the quantifier '*' allows to match zero times) followed by a forward slash (which can also be missing by applying optional modifier '?', to match the last element of the array). The array has a quantifier expression on line 4, specifying min 3 and max 5 elements to be matched and it also assigns the export name to array expression. Out record ends with an EOL matching with line feed:

ARRAY{
    INT*:i
    '/'?
}{3,5}:int_array
EOL;

Parsing results with line 1 evaluated to an array with 3 members, line 2 array with five members and line 3 array with four members (note NULL values for missing integers).

int_array
[101, 102, 103]
[201, null ,203, null, 205]
[null, 302, 303, 304]