How to use a global variable regex in my tests

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1

Hello I was hoping someone could help me out with a problem I am having. In my tests I am checking certain fields to confirm that the value returned by the API matches the expected time date format. To do that I am using a regex, for example:

pm.expect(jsonData.value[0]['CreatedDt']).to.match(/\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}/);

I would like to move the regex (ie, /\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}/) into a global variable that I can use instead so that if the format changes in the future I only have to change the regex in the variable instead of all my tests.

The problem is that once I swap out the regex for the global variable I am getting this error:

Value array item fields have expected type & formatting | TypeError: e.exec is not a function

I can’t seem to find a way to move the regex into a global variable & then use that variable in the match instead. Here is the code I am trying to write:

pm.test("Value array item fields have expected type & formatting", () => {
    var regex = pm.globals.get("tds_regex");
    pm.expect(jsonData.value[0]['CreatedDt']).to.match(regex);
});

If anyone has any suggestions I would be most appreciative. Thanks in advance,

__Chris

2

Hey @cmikkelsen

Welcome to the Postman community! :trophy:

What does your global variable look like? Can you console.log(regex) and show what that returns?

I’ve seen this error message before but I can’t remember why it’s happening. I’m sure in was something to do with the way the regex string is inside that match() function…but I might be wrong. :thinking:

3

The regex in the variable is: /\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}/. When it is returned by then pm.globals.get() call it shows in the log as “/\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}/”.

4

I think because it would be returned from the variable as a string for example - "regex_code"

The match() function wouldn’t recognise it as regex. You would need to strip out the quote marks.

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5

Thanks. I will give that a shot & see if it works.

6

Figured it out. Essentially I used the JS RegEx class to generate a regex based on the string I have stored in my global variable. So my code now looks like this:

let tds_regex = new RegExp(pm.globals.get('timeDateStamp_regex'));
pm.expect(jsonData.value[0]['CreatedDt']).to.match(tds_regex);

In addition I found out that the RegEx class adds a “/” to the beginning & end of the string you create it with so I had to change my original regex string from /\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}/ to \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}.

Not sure it is the best way but it is working for me.

Thanks @danny-dainton for your suggestion. Looking into that lead to this.

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