Aware 2.0 - Regular Expression Pattern Creation

This article contains information on creating and validating regular expression patterns in Aware, including examples for identifying sensitive data like PII and VAT IDs and custom patterns for industry-specific needs.

Regular Expressions are patterns that can trigger Events in Aware. They look for a specific combination of character, keyword, or number patterns within your connected Content Platform.

Account numbers, addresses, credit card numbers, national identification numbers, and other regular expressions are examples. We have created and validated many common patterns for you, and they are available in Aware. If you would like to create a pattern for something industry—or company-specific, like an employee ID or Customer Account Number, read below for some helpful tips.

Remember that your Customer Success Manager can help you build and validate a regular expression pattern for your use.

See  http://www.regexr.com or https://www.regex101.com for a simple regular expression tool.

Creating a Regular Expression

There are many ways to go about creating regular expressions, but one of the most common ways is to follow these instructions:

• Identify the type of pattern you are trying to find within a message (e.g., 6-digit number separated by dashes ##-##-##)
• Use a RegEx tool for help when creating your pattern. The regular expression for this pattern is: \b\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}\b

Validate in a RegEx tool or Aware that the pattern is correct and will bring back the intended content

Below are some examples of Regular Expression Patterns that we do not have available in our product:

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII): The following patterns match types of information that many countries consider to be personally identifiable.

Country	Identity Number	Regular Expression Pattern
China (PRC)	Matches an 18-digit number.	\b\d{18}\b
Finland	Matches an 11-digit number where the last digit is sometimes a character.	\b\d{10}\w\b
Ireland	Matches a 7-digit number followed by two trailing characters.	\b\d{7}[a-zA-Z]{2}\b
Israel	Matches a 9-digit number.	\b\d{9}\b.
Italy	Matches 6 characters, followed by 9-digits with a final trailing character.	\b[a-zA-Z]{6}\d{9}\w\b.
Poland	Matches an 11-digit number.	\b\d{11}\b.
South Korea	Matches a 6-digit number followed by a dash and 7 trailing digits.	\b\d{6}-\d{7}\b.
Sweden	Matches a 6-digit number followed by a dash and 4 trailing digits.	\b\d{6}-\d{4}\b.
Switzerland	Matches an 11-digit number with two different groupings.AAA.BB.CCC.DDD or the newer 756.XXXX.XXXX.XY.	\b\d{3}[.]\d{2}[.]\d{3}[.]\d{3}\b|\b756[.]\d{4}[.]\d{4}[.]\d{2}\b.
Spain	Matches matches an 8-digit number followed by a dash and a trailing letter. ########-X.	\b\d{8}-[a-zA-Z]\b.
Taiwan	Matches a letter followed by 9 digits.	\b[a-zA-Z]\d{9}\b.
Thailand	Matches a 13-digit number separated by dashes. #-####-#####-##-#.	\b\d{1}-\d{4}-\d{5}-\d{2}-\d\b.
Turkey	Matches a 13-digit number.	\b\d{13}\b.
United Kingdom	Matches a 10-digit number separated by dashes or the placeholder equivalent.###-###-#### or xxx-xxx-xxxx.	\b\d{3}[-.]?\d{3}[-.]?\d{4}\b|xxx-xxx-xxxx.
United States	Matches a 9, followed by groupings of digits separated by dashes.9##-##-#### or 9xx-xx-xxxx. Matches 2 digits followed by a dash and 7 trailing digits.##-#######.	\b9\d{2}[-.]?\d{2}[-.]?\d{4}\b|9xx-xx-xxxx. \b\d{2}[-.]?\d{7}\b|xx-xxxxxxx.
Vietnam	Matches a 9-digit number in groupings of 3 separated by dashes. ###-###-###.	\b\d{3}[-.]?\d{3}[-.]?\d{3}\b|xxx-xxx-xxx.
Austria	Matches ATU + 8 digits.	\bATU\d{8}\b|U\d{8}
Belgium	Matches BE + 10 digits.	\bBE\d{10}\b|\d{10}
Bulgaria	Matches BG + 9 to 10 digits.	\bBG\d{9,10}\b|\d{9,10}
Croatia	Matches HR + 11 digits.	\bHR\d{11}\b|\d{11}
Cyprus	Matches CY + 8 digits + 1 trailing character.	\b(cy|CY)?\d{8}\w\b
Czech Republic	Matches CZ + 8 to 10 digits.	\b(cz|CZ)?\d{8,10}\b
Denmark	Matches DK + 8 digits.	\b(dk|DK)?\d{8}\b
Estonia	Matches EE + 9 digits.	\b(ee|EE)?\d{9}\b
Finland	Matches FI + 8 digits.	\b(fi|FI)?\d{8}\b
France	Matches FR + 2 characters followed by 9 digits.	\b(fr|FR)?[a-zA-Z]{2}\d{9}\b
Germany	Matches DE + 9 digits.	\b(de|DE)?\d{9}\b
Greece	Matches EL + 9 digits.	\b(el|EL)?\d{9}\b
Hungary	Matches HU + 8 digits.	\b(hu|HU)?\d{8}\b
Ireland	Matches IE + 7 digits followed by 1 or two characters.	\b(ie|IE)?\d{7}[a-zA-Z]{1,2}\b
Italy	Matches IT + 11 digits.	\b(yit|IT)?\d{11}\b
Latvia	Matches LV + 11 digits.	\b(lv|LV)?\d{11}\b
Lithuania	Matches LT + 9 or 12 digits.	\b(lt|LT)?\d{9}\b|LT\d{12}
Luxembourg	Matches LU + 8 digits.	\b(lu|LU)?\d{8}\b
Malta	Matches MT + 8 digits.	\b(mt|MT)?\d{8}\b
Netherlands	Matches NL + 9 digits followed by the letter B and 2 more digits.	\b(nl|NL)?\d{9}B\d{2}\b
Poland	Matches PL + 10 digits. ###-###-##-## or ###-##-##-###.	\b(pl|PL)?\s\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{2}\b|PL\s\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{3}
Portugal	Matches PT + 9 digits.	\b(pt|PT)?\d{9}\b
Romania	Matches RO + 2 to 10 digits.	\b(ro|RO)?\d{2,10}\b
Slovakia	Matches SK + 10 digits.	\b(sk|SK)?\d{10}\b
Slovenia	Matches SI + 8 digits.	\b(si|SI)?\d{8}\b
Spain	Matches ES + a character or a digit followed by 7 digits and a final character or a digit.	\b(es|ES)?[a-zA-Z0-9]\d{7}[a-zA-Z0-9]\b
Sweden	Matches SE + 10 digits followed by 01.	\b(se|SE)?\d{10}01\b
Standard	Matches GB + 9 digits separated in groupings of 3, 4 and 2.GB### #### ##.	\b(gb|GB)?\d{3}\s\d{4}\s\d{2}\b
Branch Traders	Matches GB + 9 digits then a following block of 3 digits.GB######### ###.	\b(gb|GB)?\d{9}\s\d{3}\b
Government Departments	Matches GBGD + 3 digits.	\b(gbgd|GBGD)?d{3}\b
Health Authorities	Matches GBHA + 3 digits.	\b(gbha|GBHA)?\d{3}\b