Match arrays

Note: If you’re familiar with Sensible, this detailed topic is for you. If you’re new to Sensible, see match.

Sensible matches the last element in a Match array if:

• Each array element targets a separate successive line in the document.
• The matches specified in the array occur in the document in the same order as in the array. For more information about line ordering, see Lines.

This example creates an Anchor line using the last element in the array:

JSON

{
  "fields": [
    {
      "id": "match_array",
      "anchor": {
        "start": "My section heading to start matching on",
        "end": "My footer text to stop matching on",
        "includeEnd": true,
        "match": 
          [
            {
              "type": "includes",
              "text": "finds anchor if you match this string in a line",
            },
            {
              "type": "startsWith",
              "text": "followed by the first occurrence of this string in another line",
            },
                          {
              "type": "regex",
              "pattern": ".*create an Anchor line out of this last match",
            },
          ]      
      },
      "method": {
        "id": "label",
        "position": "below"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Reverse match arrays

Use the Reverse parameter when a difficult-to-match target line precedes an easy-to-match line. You can match the easy line, then set "reverse:true" to search preceding lines until you match the difficult line.

Config

JSON

{
  "fields": [
    {
      "id": "reverse_example",
      "anchor": {
        "match": [
          {
            "type": "startsWith",
            "text": "section header"
          },
          {
            "type": "startsWith",
            "text": "an unusual line"
          },
          {
            "type": "startsWith",
            "text": "a common line",
            "reverse": true
          }
        ]
      },
      "method": {
        "id": "label",
        "position": "below",
        "textAlignment": "hangingIndent"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Example document

The following image shows the example document used with this example config:

Example document	Download link

Output

JSON

{
  "reverse_example": {
    "type": "string",
    "value": "Target data"
  }
}

Notes

In a reverse match array, Sensible searches for anchor candidates in sequence, and rules out overlapping match arrays. The following image illustrates this behavior for the example config: