The cascading.operation.regex.RegexSplitter function splits an argument value based on a regex pattern String. (For the opposite effect, see the FieldJoiner function.) Internally, this function uses java.util.regex.Pattern.split(), and it behaves accordingly. By default, it splits on the TAB character ("\t"). If it is known that a determinate number of values will emerge from this function, it can declare field names. In this case, if the splitter encounters more split values than field names, the remaining values are discarded. For more information, see java.util.regex.Pattern.split( input, limit ).

The cascading.operation.regex.RegexParser function is used to extract a regex-matched value from an incoming argument value. If the regular expression is sufficiently complex, an int array may be provided to specify which regex groups should be returned in which field names.

// incoming -> "line"

String regex =
  "^([^ ]*) +[^ ]* +[^ ]* +\\[([^]]*)\\] +" +
    "\\\"([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) [^ ]*\\\" ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*).*$";
Fields fieldDeclaration =
  new Fields( "ip", "time", "method", "event", "status", "size" );
int[] groups = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6};
RegexParser parser = new RegexParser( fieldDeclaration, regex, groups );
assembly = new Each( assembly, new Fields( "line" ), parser );

// outgoing -> "ip", "time", "method", "event", "status", "size"

In the example above, a line from an Apache access log is parsed into its component parts. Note that the int[] groups array starts at 1, not 0. Group 0 is the whole group, so if the first field is included, it is a copy of "line" and not "ip".

The cascading.operation.regex.RegexReplace function is used to replace a regex-matched value with a specified replacement value. It can operate in a "replace all" or "replace first" mode. For more information, see the methods java.util.regex.Matcher.replaceAll() and java.util.regex.Matcher.replaceFirst().

// incoming -> "line"

RegexReplace replace =
  new RegexReplace( new Fields( "clean-line" ), "\\s+", " ", true );
assembly = new Each( assembly, new Fields( "line" ), replace );

// outgoing -> "clean-line"

In the example above, all adjoined white space characters are replaced with a single space character.

The cascading.operation.regex.RegexFilter function filters a Tuple stream based on a specified regex value. By default, tuples that match the given pattern are kept, and tuples that do not match are filtered out. This can be reversed by setting "removeMatch" to true. Also, by default, the whole Tuple is matched against the given regex String (in tab-delimited sections). If "matchEachElement" is set to true, the pattern is applied to each Tuple value individually. For more information, see the java.util.regex.Matcher.find() method.

// incoming -> "ip", "time", "method", "event", "status", "size"

Filter filter = new RegexFilter( "^68\\..*" );
assembly = new Each( assembly, new Fields( "ip" ), filter );

// outgoing -> "ip", "time", "method", "event", "status", "size"

The above keeps all lines in which "68." appears at the start of the IP address.

The cascading.operation.regex.RegexGenerator function emits a new tuple for every string (found in an input tuple) that matches a specified regex pattern.

// incoming -> "line"

String regex = "(?<!\\pL)(?=\\pL)[^ ]*(?<=\\pL)(?!\\pL)";
Function function = new RegexGenerator( new Fields( "word" ), regex );
assembly = new Each( assembly, new Fields( "line" ), function );

// outgoing -> "word"

Above each "line" in a document is parsed into unique words and stored in the "word" field of each result Tuple.

The cascading.operation.regex.RegexSplitGenerator function emits a new Tuple for every split on the incoming argument value delimited by the given pattern String. The behavior is similar to the RegexSplitter function, except that (assuming multiple matches) RegexSplitter emits a single tuple that may contain multiple values, and RegexSplitGenerator emits multiple tuples that each contain only one value, as does RegexGenerator.