Why isn't regex from the documentatinon not working?

[Oneechan69]

I'm trying to get a regex replace working in Obsidian, but while a non regex rule works:

filter_exec: "/Applications/Obsidian.app"

matches:
  - trigger: ":espanso2"
    replace: "Hi there!2"

But this regex rule I got from here: https://espanso.org/docs/matches/regex-triggers/, doesn't work.

filter_exec: "/Applications/Obsidian.app"

matches:
  - regex: ":greet\\((?P<person>.*)\\)"
    replace: "Hi {{person}}!"

[smeech]

Can you try this?:

  - regex: :greet\((?P<person>[[:alpha:]]+)\)
    replace: Hi {{person}}!

with :greet(Bob).

Although the expansion in the docs works here (not tried in Obsidian) I find it more reliable to avoid surrounding them with quotes ("). Reddit posts over the years in r/espanso complain of problems with Obsidian.

[gabbauer]

I have the same problem and unfortunately your proposal isn't working either...
It isn't showing me an Error or anything, it is just not replacing.
I use Windows 10 and Espanso v.2.2.1

[smeech]

Is yours also an Obsidian problem? Does the same expansion work in a simple text editor?

Part of the problem in @Oneechan69's Issue may be the placement of a filter_ (config) line and a matches:/trigger: (match) line in the same file, which will never work (although I may have misunderstood, if the non-regex works). They need to be in separate files, the filter_ in espanso/config with an include: line, referencing a matches:/trigger: file (probably underscore-prefixed), in espanso/match.

[gabbauer]

Thanks for the quick reply, but unfortunately I don't quite understand what it means. But I now know what the problem is. I just tried it again in this chat and it surprisingly worked (unlike Obsidian and Visual Studio Code (where I configure the .base file), where it still doesn't work). This gave me an idea that it could be because in both cases (Obsidian and VSC) both brackets are added simulataneously (so also the ")"). I have switched off this option in Obsidian and now it works there too (Since I don't use Brackets in the non-regex ones they also work the other way). In the long term, of course, it would be great if it also worked the other way. Any ideas for this?

[smeech]

Well spotted! I see what you mean, testing in VSCodium. If I ignore the auto-closing bracket and continue to type the rest of the trigger anyway, it works properly (and deletes the auto-closing bracket in the process).

I've seen other issues that occur when two programs (such as sophisticated editors like these) are inserting characters at the same time, especially if some of those characters aren't typed. Espanso only "sees" typed characters.

I'll mark your post as the answer and close the issue, if that's OK.

[gabbauer]

Oh yes,
thanks for the clarification. Now it works! So you can close it ;)