text.regexGroups

Description

Extracts all matches and capture groups from a string using a regular expression pattern. Returns a nested array where each match contains the full match and any captured groups.

Syntax 

flex.text.regexGroups(string, regex)

Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |———–|——|———-|————-| | string | string | Yes | The string to search in | | regex | string | Yes | The regular expression pattern (applied globally) |

Returns

Type: list of lists

A nested array where each inner array represents one match and contains the full match followed by any capture groups. Returns null if input string is null.

Examples

Example 1: Extract Email Components 

WITH 'Contact: john@example.com or jane@test.org' AS text
RETURN flex.text.regexGroups(text, '(\\w+)@(\\w+\\.\\w+)') AS matches

Output:

matches
----------------------------------------------------
[["john@example.com", "john", "example.com"], 
 ["jane@test.org", "jane", "test.org"]]

Example 2: Parse Date Components 

WITH '2024-01-15 and 2024-12-25' AS dates
RETURN flex.text.regexGroups(dates, '(\\d{4})-(\\d{2})-(\\d{2})') AS parsed

Output:

parsed
-------------------------------------------------
[["2024-01-15", "2024", "01", "15"],
 ["2024-12-25", "2024", "12", "25"]]

Example 3: Extract URLs and Protocol 

MATCH (d:Document)
WITH d, flex.text.regexGroups(d.content, '(https?)://([\\w.]+)') AS urls
WHERE size(urls) > 0
RETURN d.title, urls

Notes

  • Returns null if input string is null
  • The regex is applied globally (finds all matches)
  • Each match array contains: [fullMatch, group1, group2, …]
  • Useful for parsing structured text, extracting data patterns
  • More powerful than simple string search for complex patterns

See Also