Documentation Experience Platform Segmentation Service Guide

String functions

Last update: October 11, 2024

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Profile Query Language (PQL) offers functions to make interaction with strings simpler. More information about other PQL functions can be found in the Profile Query Language overview.

Like

The like function is used to determine if a string matches a specified pattern as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1} like {STRING_2}

Argument Description

{STRING_1} The string to perform the check on.

{STRING_2}

The expression to match against the first string. There are two supported special characters for creating an expression: % and _.

% is used to represent zero or more characters.
_ is used to represent exactly one character.

Example

The following PQL query retrieves all the cities containing the pattern “es”.

city like "%es%"

Starts with

The startsWith function is used to determine if a string starts with a specified substring as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.startsWith({STRING_2}, {BOOLEAN})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to search for within the first string.
`{BOOLEAN}`	An optional parameter to determine if the check is case sensitive. By default, this is set to true.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s name starts with “Joe”.

person.name.startsWith("Joe")

Does not start with

The doesNotStartWith function is used to determine if a string does not start with a specified substring as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.doesNotStartWith({STRING_2}, {BOOLEAN})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to search for within the first string.
`{BOOLEAN}`	An optional parameter to determine if the check is case sensitive. By default, this is set to true.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s name does not start with “Joe”.

person.name.doesNotStartWith("Joe")

Ends with

The endsWith function is used to determine if a string ends with a specified substring as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.endsWith({STRING_2}, {BOOLEAN})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to search for within the first string.
`{BOOLEAN}`	An optional parameter to determine if the check is case sensitive. By default, this is set to true.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s email address ends with “.com”.

person.emailAddress.endsWith(".com")

Does not end with

The doesNotEndWith function is used to determine if a string does not end with a specified substring as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.doesNotEndWith({STRING_2}, {BOOLEAN})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to search for within the first string.
`{BOOLEAN}`	An optional parameter to determine if the check is case sensitive. By default, this is set to true.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s email address does not end with “.com”.

person.emailAddress.doesNotEndWith(".com")

Contains

The contains function is used to determine if a string contains a specified substring as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.contains({STRING_2}, {BOOLEAN})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to search for within the first string.
`{BOOLEAN}`	An optional parameter to determine if the check is case sensitive. By default, this is set to true.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s email address contains the string “2010@gm”.

person.emailAddress.contains("2010@gm")

Does not contain

The doesNotContain function is used to determine if a string does not contain a specified substring as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.doesNotContain({STRING_2}, {BOOLEAN})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to search for within the first string.
`{BOOLEAN}`	An optional parameter to determine if the check is case sensitive. By default, this is set to true.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s email address does not contain the string “2010@gm”.

person.emailAddress.doesNotContain("2010@gm")

Equals

The equals function is used to determine if a string is equal to the specified string as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.equals({STRING_2})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to compare with the first string.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s name is “John”.

person.name.equals("John")

Not equal to

The notEqualTo function is used to determine if a string is not equal to the specified string as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.notEqualTo({STRING_2})

Argument	Description
`{STRING_1}`	The string to perform the check on.
`{STRING_2}`	The string to compare with the first string.

Example

The following PQL query determines, with case sensitivity, if the person’s name is not “John”.

person.name.notEqualTo("John")

Matches

The matches function is used to determine if a string matches a specific regular expression. Please refer to this document for more information on matching patterns in regular expressions as a boolean.

Format

{STRING_1}.matches(STRING_2})

Example

The following PQL query determines, without being case sensitive, if the person’s name starts with “John”.

person.name.matches("(?i)^John")

NOTE

If you are using regular expression functions such as \w, you must escape the backslash character. So, instead of writing just \w, you must include an extra backslash and write \\w.

Regular expression group

The regexGroup function is used to extract specific information, based on the regular expression provided as a string.

Format

{STRING}.regexGroup({EXPRESSION})

Example

The following PQL query is used to extract the domain name from an email address.

emailAddress.regexGroup("@(\\w+)", 1)

NOTE

If you are using regular expression functions such as \w, you must escape the backslash character. So, instead of writing just \w, you must include an extra backslash and write \\w.

Next steps

Now that you have learned about string functions, you can use them within your PQL queries. For more information about other PQL functions, please read the Profile Query Language overview.

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