Regular Expressions (Regex) enable complex pattern search and replacement in strings. ABAP supports POSIX-compatible regular expressions via statements and classes.
Usage Options
FIND … REGEX – Search pattern in stringREPLACE … REGEX – Replace patternmatches() – Check if string matches patterncl_abap_regex / cl_abap_matcher – Object-oriented API
Regex Syntax Overview
Character Meaning Example .Any character a.c -> abc, aXc*0 or more ab*c -> ac, abc, abbc+1 or more ab+c -> abc, abbc?0 or 1 ab?c -> ac, abc^Start ^Hello$End World$[abc]Character class [aeiou] -> vowels[^abc]Negated class [^0-9] -> non-digits[a-z]Range [A-Za-z] -> letters\dDigit [0-9] \d{4} -> 4 digits\wWord character [a-zA-Z0-9_] \w+\sWhitespace \s+ -> spaces\bWord boundary \bword\b{n}Exactly n times a{3} -> aaa{n,m}n to m times a{2,4} -> aa, aaa, aaaa(...)Group (ab)+ -> ab, abab|Or cat|dog
Examples
1. FIND with REGEX
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'Order 12345 from 2024-11-15' .
FIND REGEX '\d+' IN lv_text MATCH OFFSET DATA (lv_offset)
MATCH LENGTH DATA (lv_length).
DATA (lv_number) = substring ( val = lv_text off = lv_offset len = lv_length ).
WRITE : / 'Found:' , lv_number. " 12345
2. Find All Matches (FIND ALL OCCURRENCES)
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'Tel: 030-12345, Fax: 040-67890, Mobile: 0170-9876543' .
FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '\d{3,4}-\d+'
RESULTS DATA (lt_results).
LOOP AT lt_results INTO DATA (ls_result).
DATA (lv_phone) = substring ( val = lv_text
len = ls_result-length ).
WRITE : / 'Phone:' , lv_phone.
DATA : lv_date TYPE string VALUE 'Date: 2024-11-15' .
" Extract date with groups
FIND REGEX '(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})'
SUBMATCHES DATA (lv_year) DATA (lv_month) DATA (lv_day).
WRITE : / 'Year:' , lv_year. " 2024
WRITE : / 'Month:' , lv_month. " 11
WRITE : / 'Day:' , lv_day. " 15
4. REPLACE with REGEX
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'Price: 123.45 EUR, Discount: 10.00 EUR' .
" Replace numbers with XXX
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '\d+\.?\d*'
WRITE : / lv_text. " Price: XXX EUR, Discount: XXX EUR
5. Backreferences
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'The the cat sits on on the roof.' .
" Remove duplicate words (backreference \1)
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '\b(\w+)\s+\1\b'
WRITE : / lv_text. " The cat sits on the roof.
6. matches() – Check If Pattern Matches
" Simple email validation
IF matches ( val = lv_email regex = '^\w+@\w+\.\w+$' ).
WRITE : / 'Invalid email' .
DATA : lv_phone TYPE string VALUE '+49-170-1234567' .
DATA (lv_valid_phone) = xsdbool (
matches ( val = lv_phone regex = '^\+?\d{2,3}-\d{2,4}-\d{4,}$' )
7. contains() with Regex
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'Order No. 12345 has been shipped' .
IF contains ( val = lv_text regex = '\d+' ).
WRITE : / 'Text contains numbers' .
IF contains ( val = lv_text regex = '^Order' ).
WRITE : / 'This is an order' .
8. count() with Regex
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'a1b2c3d4e5' .
DATA (lv_digit_count) = count ( val = lv_text regex = '\d' ).
WRITE : / 'Digit count:' , lv_digit_count. " 5
DATA : lv_sentence TYPE string VALUE 'This is an example sentence with words' .
DATA (lv_word_count) = count ( val = lv_sentence regex = '\b\w+\b' ).
WRITE : / 'Word count:' , lv_word_count. " 7
9. cl_abap_regex – Object-oriented
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'Name: Max Mustermann, Age: 30' .
DATA (lo_regex) = cl_abap_regex=>create_pcre( pattern = '(\w+):\s*(\S+)' ).
DATA (lo_matcher) = lo_regex->create_matcher( text = lv_text ).
" Iterate through all matches
WHILE lo_matcher->find_next( ).
DATA (lv_full) = lo_matcher->get_match( ).
DATA (lv_key) = lo_matcher->get_submatch( 1 ).
DATA (lv_value) = lo_matcher->get_submatch( 2 ).
WRITE : / 'Match:' , lv_full.
WRITE : / ' Key:' , lv_key, 'Value:' , lv_value.
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE
DATA : lt_emails TYPE string_table.
FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '[\w.+-]+@[\w.-]+\.\w{2,}'
RESULTS DATA (lt_results).
LOOP AT lt_results INTO DATA (ls_result).
APPEND substring ( val = lv_text
len = ls_result-length ) TO lt_emails.
LOOP AT lt_emails INTO DATA (lv_email).
11. Practical: Clean Data
DATA : lv_phone TYPE string VALUE '+49 (0) 170 / 123 45 67' .
" Remove all non-digits except +
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '[^\d+]' IN lv_phone WITH '' .
WRITE : / lv_phone. " +491701234567
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'Too many spaces here' .
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '\s{2,}' IN lv_text WITH ' ' .
WRITE : / lv_text. " Too many spaces here
12. Practical: Validations
" Validate IBAN (simplified)
DATA : lv_iban TYPE string VALUE 'DE89370400440532013000' .
IF matches ( val = lv_iban regex = '^[A-Z]{2}\d{2}[A-Z0-9]{4}\d{7}([A-Z0-9]?){0,16}$' ).
WRITE : / 'Valid IBAN format' .
" Validate ZIP code (Germany)
DATA : lv_plz TYPE string VALUE '12345' .
IF matches ( val = lv_plz regex = '^\d{5}$' ).
WRITE : / 'Valid German ZIP code' .
" Validate date (YYYY-MM-DD)
DATA : lv_date TYPE string VALUE '2024-11-15' .
IF matches ( val = lv_date regex = '^\d{4}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01])$' ).
WRITE : / 'Valid date format' .
13. Practical: Parsing
DATA : lv_log TYPE string VALUE '2024-11-15 10:30:45 [ERROR] Database connection failed' .
FIND REGEX '^(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})\s+(\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2})\s+\[(\w+)\]\s+(.+)$'
SUBMATCHES DATA (lv_date) DATA (lv_time) DATA (lv_level) DATA (lv_message).
WRITE : / 'Date:' , lv_date.
WRITE : / 'Time:' , lv_time.
WRITE : / 'Level:' , lv_level.
WRITE : / 'Message:' , lv_message.
14. Practical: CSV Parsing
DATA : lv_csv TYPE string VALUE 'Max;Mustermann;30;Berlin' .
DATA : lt_fields TYPE string_table.
" Split by semicolon (alternative to SPLIT)
FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '[^;]+' IN lv_csv RESULTS DATA (lt_matches).
LOOP AT lt_matches INTO DATA (ls_match).
APPEND substring ( val = lv_csv off = ls_match-offset len = ls_match-length )
SPLIT lv_csv AT ';' INTO TABLE lt_fields.
15. Case-Insensitive Search
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'ABAP is great, abap is cool' .
" Case-insensitive with (?i)
FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '(?i)abap'
MATCH COUNT DATA (lv_count).
WRITE : / 'Found:' , lv_count, 'times' . " 2
16. Escape Function
DATA : lv_search TYPE string VALUE 'a.b*c?' .
" Escape special characters for literal search
DATA (lv_escaped) = escape ( val = lv_search format = cl_abap_format=>e_regex ).
WRITE : / 'Escaped:' , lv_escaped. " a\.b\*c\?
" Now lv_escaped can be used in REGEX
DATA : lv_text TYPE string VALUE 'Test a.b*c? end' .
FIND REGEX lv_escaped IN lv_text.
Common Regex Patterns
Purpose Pattern Number \d+ or [0-9]+Decimal number \d+\.?\d*Word \w+ or [A-Za-z]+Email (simple) [\w.+-]+@[\w.-]+\.\w{2,}URL https?://[\w./%-]+Date (YYYY-MM-DD) \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}ZIP code (DE) \d{5}Phone (DE) (\+49|0)\d{2,4}[-/]?\d+IP address \d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}Remove whitespace \s+ -> “HTML tags <[^>]+>
FIND/REPLACE Options
FIND REGEX pattern IN text
[ IGNORING CASE ] " Ignore case
[ MATCH OFFSET off ] " Start position of match
[ MATCH LENGTH len ] " Length of match
[ MATCH COUNT cnt ] " Number of matches
[ SUBMATCHES s1 s2 ... ] " Group contents
[ RESULTS result_tab ]. " All matches as table
Important Notes / Best Practice
PCRE syntax (Perl-compatible) with cl_abap_regex=>create_pcre().Standard ABAP Regex is POSIX-compatible .
Use escape() to escape special characters.
Submatches with (...) for group extraction.(?i) at the beginning for case-insensitive search.Performance : Compiled regex (cl_abap_regex) for repeated use.matches() checks if entire string matches the pattern.contains( ... regex = ...) checks if pattern is contained .\d, \w, \s are shorthand for character classes.Test regex with online tools (regex101.com) before implementing.
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