Regular Expression Builder

I only found this feature of DB Pro the other day - must remember to spend more time exploring menus - so thought I should share.

When you are creating a Data generation Plan, one of the options on how to control the shape of the data is to use a Regular Expression. To help you develop these, the Reg Ex builder dialog is a great tool to use. This is on the Data Generator menu on the Data menu.

When you enter your Reg Ex, it quickly generates a preview of the data that will be created - a great way to play with your Reg Ex. Once you have created your master piece, you can save it for later use. There are also some pre-built Reg Exs that you might find useful (URL, email address, Zip Code, ...).

I've been showing this tool off as part of my demo at the MSDN Roadshows in the UK and have a couple of useful Reg Exs, that are probably worth sharing:

For a persons title: Mr|(Mrs|Miss|Mz)

50% of the rows will be Mr, then the other 50% will be an even split of Mrs, Miss or Mz - ok so not 100% accurate, but probably good enough for a decent test.

UK Street Address: ([1-9]|[1-9][0-9]) [A-W][aeiou][b-y][aeiou][b-y]{2} (Street|Road|Avenue|Close)

Will give strange sounding street names, but again close enough to real data for most purposes

UK Post code: [A-Y]{2}([1-9]|[1-9]{2}) ([1-9]|[1-9]{2})[A-Z]{2}

Doesn't really account for London Post Codes, but if you aren't actually validating addresses against post codes could save you lots of typing.

Hope this helps,

Neil Kidd