Regular Expression with square bracket "["

[francis....@gmail.com]

Hi there,

I'm trying to use the REGEX_MATCH operator with the Google Ads API to match a string with square brackets. I want to match any string that contains, literally:

"Google [Ads]"

My query where clause is

WHERE campaign.name REGEXP_MATCH ' (?i).*Google \[Ads].* '

Notice I did escape the "[" caracter. It is valid in the query validator, but at runtime I get this error:

Error in WHERE clause: invalid value '(?i).*Google \\.`

Any idea what's wrong with this expression?

Thanks, Francis

P.S. I'm using the .NET SDK. 

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi  Francis,

Thank you for raising this concern to the Google Ads API forum. With regard to your concern, could you please try this format below:

WHERE campaign.name REGEXP_MATCH \" (?i).Google [Ads]. \"

I tried this suggested format and it's working on my end so you can try it as well.

Best regards,

Jinky Google Ads API Team

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2a5B6j:ref

[francis....@gmail.com]

 Hi Jinky,

the suggested regular expression executes without error, but it does not match the string "Google [Ads]". This is because "[" is a reserved caracter. See the screenshots below from a regex tester using the re2 syntax. 

I would expect the Google Ads API to match the escaped opening square bracket without error.

Thank you, Francis

[stefano...@webrepublic.ch]

Hi Francis,

Try 

WHERE campaign.name REGEXP_MATCH \" (?i).Google [[]Ads[]]. \"

"To match a literal [, ], %, or _ using the LIKE operator, surround the character in square brackets." source https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/query/grammar 

Hope this helps

[francis....@gmail.com]

It dit work by surrounding in square brackets, thank you!!