patternMatch

This rule validates the pattern of the specified field value against a regular expression. See the Javadoc for java.util.regex for more information about using regular expressions. Used alone in the Data Cleanser, this rule can be defined to either reject records containing field values do not match the pattern or to reject records containing fields values that do match the pattern. You can also use this rule with conditional rules and operators to define more complex rules. When this rule is used with the Data Profiler, the frequency report includes a frequency for any patterns that either match or do not match the specified pattern, depending on the value of the found parameter.

The syntax for patternMatch is:

<patternMatch fieldName="name" matchPattern="pattern" found="true/false"/>

The parameters for patternMatch are:

• field_name – The qualified field name or assigned variable for the field to validate.

• matchPattern – A regular expression that defines the pattern to match against.

• found – A boolean indicator of whether to validate for field values that do match the pattern or that do not match the pattern. When this parameter is set to true in a cleansing rule, the Data Cleanser rejects records that do not match the pattern. For the Data Profiler, the generated report only includes field values that match the pattern. When this parameter is set to false in a cleansing rule, the Data Cleanser rejects records that match the pattern. For the Data Profiler, the generated report only includes fields that do not match the pattern.

Example 7 Sample patternMatch Rule

This sample validates the social security number field to ensure it is in the format “NNN-NN-NNNN”. Records containing a social security number in any other format are rejected or are not included in the frequency report.

<rule>
  <patternMatch fieldName="Person.SSN" matchPattern="[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}" 
   found="true"/>
</rule>