Regex extractors

This article explains how to use regular expressions in Scala pattern matching.

Sometimes the best way to decompose string data is with capturing groups in regular expressions. However, using Java’s java.util.regex package is no fun. Fortunately Scala’s scala.util.matching package uses Scala language features to make things a lot easier for you.

Follow along

Note that the examples shown are from a REPL session and can be copy-pasted into another Scala REPL. The REPL will figure out what’s going on, repeat the commands, and ignore the output from the other session. But note that you have to press ctrl-D when you’re done pasting before it does anything.

What do we want to achieve

Let’s say we want to decompose a string containing an e-mail address into its local and domain parts. The regular expression (.*)@(.\*) splits an e-mail address into its local (first capture group) and domain (second) parts.

We’re not trying to fully validate the e-mail address for this example. If you do plan to properly validate e-mail addresses in your application, make sure you get it right. There are many web sites out there that get it wrong — mainly not allowing ``+'' (plus sign) in the local part, see Wikipedia. Let’s take it step by step.

Regular expressions in Scala

In Scala you can easily create a regular expression from a String by calling its r method. Since Scala uses Java’s String class which doesn’t contain an r method, this method has to come from somewhere else: StringOps, which is an implicit wrapper that adds a bunch of methods to strings. This means that you can do the following:

scala> val Email = "(.*)@(.*)".r
Email: scala.util.matching.Regex = (.*)@(.*)

Let’s explain what’s going on here. Calling r on a String (or any method on any object that doesn’t have said method) makes the compiler search for something that is defined as implicit and can turn a String into something that does have an r method. Which is what exactly what implicit def augmentString(x: String): StringOps in the scala.Predef package (which is automatically in scope) is.

Extractors

r returns a Regex which contains an unapplySeq method. When an object has an unapplySeq (or unapply) method, it can be used by the compiler for pattern matching.

So you can use it as a pattern in a variable definition:

scala> val Email(local, domain) = "foo@example.com"
local: String = foo
domain: String = example.com

or in a match expression:

scala> "foo@example.com" match {
     | case Email(local, domain) => s"Got local [$local], domain [$domain]"
     | case _ => "Got nothing"
     | }
res0: String = Got local [foo], domain [example.com]

In both the assignment and the match expression, the compiler now creates a call to Regex’s unapplySeq method, passing the string `foo@example.com'' as the argument. `unapplySeq returns a list with the captured values. The values in the returned list are assigned to local and domain in the order they were found in the list.

Naming conventions

You may have noticed that we’re starting the name of a value (Email) with an uppercase letter, which is unusual. Since most Scala developers — at least the ones I have worked with — apply variable-naming rules to values in Scala. However, Scala developers also tend to apply naming rules according to the intended usage. We’re not planning to use Email as a regex directly, but as an extractor, therefore we apply extractor-naming rules.

Conclusion

Easy-to-create regexes and extractors make it very easy to write custom string extractors. Use them to your advantage to write concise and expressive code. Also, realize that any object with an unapply or unapplySeq method can be used as an extractor. Therefore you can write extractors for anything you want. See section 26.2 in Programming in Scala for more information.