[Solved] Formatting regexp in a condition of an automation

[CodeFinder]

EDIT (TL;DR): finally working with (automations.yaml, Home Assistant v0.103.5) due to requiring multi-line YAML caused by double quotes confusing the YAML parser (see detailed explanation below):

- alias: Disable Pi-Hole
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: input_select.pihole_time
  condition: # valid if in the format 'HH:MM:SS'
    - condition: template
      value_template: >
        {{ states('input_select.pihole_time')|regex_match("^(?:(?:([01]?\d|2[0-3]):)?([0-5]?\d):)?([0-5]?\d)$", ignorecase=FALSE) }}
  action:
    service: pi_hole.disable
    data_template:
      duration: "{{ states('input_select.pihole_time') }}"

---

Hi all,

I have the following automation:

- alias: Disable Pi-Hole
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: input_select.pihole_time
  condition: # valid if in the format 'HH:MM:SS'
    - condition: template
      value_template: "{{ states('input_select.pihole_time')|regex_match('^(?:(?:([01]?\d|2[0-3]):)?([0-5]?\d):)?([0-5]?\d)$', ignorecase=FALSE) }}"
  action:
    service: pi_hole.disable
    data_template:
      duration: "{{ states('input_select.pihole_time') }}"

but I am getting the errors:

Error loading /config/configuration.yaml: while scanning a double-quoted scalar
  in "/config/automations.yaml", line 298, column 23
found unknown escape character 'd'
  in "/config/automations.yaml", line 298, column 92

Line 298 is the line with the regular expression. What’s wrong here? Please note that the expression works correctly in the template editor. Also tried double quotes with no luck.

Thanks!

[tom_l]

I was just reading this:

Template Sensor with regex_findall_index not working

I’ve experienced a similar issue in the past where the single-quotes, delimiting the regex pattern, appeared to cause a problem for Home Assistant (when used in a sensor’s template). Try this version (it wraps the regex pattern with double-quotes): - platform: template name: miles_to_service value_template: > {{ state_attr('binary_sensor.330i_condition_based_services', 'oil distance') | regex_findall_index("\d*") }} friendly_name: Miles to Service unit_of_measurement: 'mi' icon_t…

So you want:

  condition: # valid if in the format 'HH:MM:SS'
    - condition: template
      value_template: >
        {{ states('input_select.pihole_time')|regex_match("^(?:(?:([01]?\d|2[0-3]):)?([0-5]?\d):)?([0-5]?\d)$", ignorecase=FALSE) }}

@CodeFinder

Also tried double quotes with no luck.

If you did not use a multi line template you would have problems with the open and close double quotes.

e.g. this:

value_template: "{{ states('input_select.pihole_time')|regex_match("
                ^---------------- matching pair -------------------^

[pnbruckner (Phil)]

I think the problem is that, when entered on one line and having the overall string quoted with double-quote characters, YAML string parsing is seeing/consuming the escape characters (so they’re not left in the string being given to regex_match. Also YAML string parsing doesn’t seem to like \d. Neither of which is an issue in the template editor, or for multi-line YAML.) So another solution is to escape the escape characters (very common in other systems, and why Python invented “raw” strings – r"abc\d123" as opposed to having to enter "abc\\d123"):

      value_template: "{{ states('input_select.pihole_time')|regex_match('^(?:(?:([01]?\\d|2[0-3]):)?([0-5]?\\d):)?([0-5]?\\d)$', ignorecase=FALSE) }}"

Or simply swap single and double quote characters (because apparently YAML doesn’t process special characters in single quoted strings like it does with double quoted strings):

      value_template: '{{ states("input_select.pihole_time")|regex_match("^(?:(?:([01]?\d|2[0-3]):)?([0-5]?\d):)?([0-5]?\d)$", ignorecase=FALSE) }}'

Multi-line YAML should would with the single quote characters, too:

      value_template: >
        {{ states('input_select.pihole_time')|regex_match('^(?:(?:([01]?\d|2[0-3]):)?([0-5]?\d):)?([0-5]?\d)$', ignorecase=FALSE) }}

[CodeFinder]

Thank you very much @tom_l and @pnbruckner, also for the good explanation, makes perfectly sense especially from the perspective of a YAML parser!

Multi-line strings did the trick here. Sometimes, YAML (parsing) is simply a pain in the a**…

Note @pnbruckner that I also tried raw strings but that did not work, too.

[pnbruckner (Phil)]

@CodeFinder

Note @pnbruckner that I also tried raw strings but that did not work, too.

Sorry, I was only mentioning that as an example of how Python added a feature to avoid the need to escape escape characters. I didn’t mean to imply you could do that in YAML.

In any case, glad you got it working.

[CodeFinder]

Ahh, okay thanks for clarifying! I knew about that feature (raw strings) in Python that’s why I also applied it to the YAML code (which I know now, didn’t make sense).