I get ASSERTION FAILED using VBSCRIP RegEx

Question

I get this error using Web and app.

Answer 1

Hi @Claudio Pratella, 

Thank you for your prompt update. I've tried the pattern you provided and in my test device the result turns out that it still works properly in my Excel version.  

However, according to your sharing, the issue happens after a recent update, and everything has worked normally until then. It's a right way to suspect whether it's a new issue with version updates but currently there has not been any official notifications about this issue from Microsoft. For now, we suggest you can try downgrade Excel to older version to see it still works well there and also prevent the negative effect of the issue to your workflow. You can follow these steps: 

Step 1: Download and Extract ODT 

• Download the .exe file from Download Office Deployment Tool from Official Microsoft Download Center 
• Run it to extract two files: setup.exe and configuration.xml (sample) 

Step 2: Create Your Custom Configuration File 

• Open Notepad and paste the following XML: 

<Configuration>  

<Updates Enabled="TRUE" TargetVersion="16.0.xxxxx.yyyyy" />  

</Configuration> 

• Replace TargetVersion with the exact build number for previous version like version 2507. You can find this from Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date) - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn. 
• Save the file as Config.xml in the same file location as the Setup.exe file 

Step 3: Run the Installer 

• Open Command prompt as administrator, navigate to the folder where setup.exe and your XML file are located, then run: 

setup.exe /configure config.xml 

• This will install the specified version of Office/Excel. 

Step 4: Disable auto updates (Optional) 

• Open Excel. 
• Go to File > Account > Update options. 
• Select Disable updates to prevent reverting to newer versions. 

For more detailed guideline, you can refer to How to revert to an earlier version of Office - Microsoft Support

Additionally, I strongly recommend submitting in-app feedback so that your experience can be formally logged with our engineering team. You can do this from Excel > Help > Feedback or go to Microsoft 365 Feedback Hub > send feedback. 

For now, I highly recommend accepting this answer as well. That way, other users who encounter the same question will see the clarification, and more of them may report similar problem, helping to bring attention to the request. The more reports the team receives, especially from business users, the faster issues like this can be prioritized and resolved as soon as possible. 

I know this is not the experience you expected, and I want to thank you for your patience while the team works on improvements.  

Thank you for your understanding and corporation. Please let me know if there's anything else I can help you with. 

Looking forward to your response.

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Answer 2

Try to replace

Dim oRegEx As RegExp
Set oRegEx = New RegExp

with

Dim oRegEx As New RegExp
Set oRegEx = GetObject("", "VBScript.RegExp")

and check if it works in various situations.

Answer 3

Since v2508, this problem can be reproduced with a simple regex and seems related to lookaheads, both positive and negative. And will occur with either early or late binding:

Here is a simple example:

'set reference to Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5
Option Explicit
Sub due()
Dim re As RegExp
    
Const pat As String = ".*(?=abc)"
Const target As String = "1234abcxy"

Set re = New RegExp
With re
    .IgnoreCase = True
    .Pattern = pat
    .Global = True
End With

re.Test (target)

End Sub

Microsoft should acknowledge this and give us a timeline for a fix. Especially since there do not seem to be any VBA alternatives.

Answer 4

A fix will be appreciated.

Answer 5

Hello @Claudio Pratella, 

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Community. 

According to your concern, we've tested your provided script on the same version 2508 (Build 19127.20174). When debugging, the issue came from the syntax of this script .Pattern = "\b\b(the|an(?=-)|-|this|that|those|these)\b(?!?(?: and | or |[,.;'][*"\”|$))" 

We suggest you can consider simplify the pattern, for example in our test we use Pattern = "\b(the|-|an|this|that|those|these)\b" and the script is running well without any error code. Also, you can go check the Tools > References > Look for Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5 and toggle that to make sure the script will run properly.  

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, you can try workaround and share us more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.      

Thank you for your understanding and corporation. Looking forward to your response.

---

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