ebook on regular expressions for Google Analytics - LunaMetrics

Recommendations

Info

IndExRegular Expressions page 5Learn About RegEx page 6Let’s Practice page 21NOT The End page 22\|?()[-]{}.*+The Backslash page 7The Pipe page 8The Question Mark page 9Parentheses page 10Square Brackets & Dashes page 12Braces page 14The Dot page 15The Plus Sign page 16The Star page 17The Dot Star page 18^. *$The Caret page 19The Dollar Sign page 204
Regular Expressions match as much as possible.Most of this <strong>ebook</strong> will be about all the characters that make upthe Regular Expressions “toolset.” But first – you’ll be lost if youdon’t understand the concept of matching as much as possible.Sometimes you will be very surprised at how much it matches, justas I was when I was new at RegEx.Let’s start with an example: Our company often wants to see allthe keywords that include our company name (branded search)and, more often, we want to see all the keywords that don’t includeour company name (unbranded search). Below are two of theRegular Expressions we use when we are including or excludingour company name:LunaMetricA friend wrote a question on a forum. He wantedto exclude all traffic that was coming from Google referringlinks, all around the world. He tried to create a reallyfancy RegEx that would include all countries, something likewww\.google\.(com|co\.(au|uk|il))/(docs|analytics|reader) etc.There are two interesting questions here, and you might feel somerighteous indignation as you ask them. I know that I felt this waywhen I was first learning RegEx:1. Why would they match? Not a single one of those phrasesincludes the entire name.2. How can those possibly be Regular Expressions? There are noRegEx characters!answErs1. They match because Regular Expressions in GA will match andmatch until they aren’t allowed to any more. That’s why Metricmatches the target string, LunaMetrics – if it matches any partof the word, it will match the whole word.2. And the characters? You don’t need to have those charactersjust to have a Regular Expression, and having the charactersdoesn’t necessarily make it a RegEx. All you need to do is put theexpression into a field that is sensitive to RegEx. For example,when you write a Google Analytics goal, you get to choose “headmatch,” “exact match” or “Regular Expression.” As soon as youchoose “Regular Expression,” the field becomes sensitive toRegEx, and all the rules of RegEx apply. You often need to uselittle RegEx characters – but not always.I wrote back: “Why don’t you just usethe word google as your RegEx?”5
Page 2 and 3: Google Analytics is one of themost
Page 6 and 7: How do I lEarnaboUt reg Ex?of cours
Page 8 and 9: not-very-wild cardsThe p Ipe|The pi
Page 10: groupingpaRentHeseS( )Parentheses i
Page 13 and 14: SquArE bRacKeTs dAsheS&pt. 2Here is
Page 15 and 16: wilder cardsThE d oT.A dot matches
Page 17 and 18: wilder cardsThE S tAr*People really
Page 19 and 20: anchorsThE c areT^When you use a ca
Page 21 and 22: leT s prActicEWhen I was a newbie t
Page 23: IoSAbout LunaMetricsLunaMetrics is

ebook on regular expressions for Google Analytics - LunaMetrics

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?