Does Trados have an equivalent to the MemoQ Regex Assistant and Regex Library?

I recently saw a presentation about the Regex in MemoQ by Kevin Lossner (at the WTF22 event) and wondered if there is any plug-in for Trados like the Regex Assistant and Regex Library in MemoQ.

I am aware of being able to test out Regexes in Trados by previewing them on files (which is similar to the Regex Assistant), but would love a way (other than my Notepad++ "Regex Cookbook") to store my regexes in Trados.

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  • Hi  ,

    I don’t know what the Regex Assistant and Regex Library in MemoQ do (maybe you can post a link?), but I’ll try to answer your specific questions:

    Regexes can be saved in several places inside Trados. One of them is Project Settings > Verification >  QA Checker 3.0 > Regular Expressions:

    Trados Studio Project Settings window showing QA Checker 3.0 with Regular Expressions tab selected. A list of regex conditions is displayed with options to edit or add new ones.

    You can also set different regexes per each language combination and also in File > Options > Verification > […] and in Project Templates, so the next projects created based on these settings will have regexes already there.

    Also, in the Advanced Filter Display you can save and recall regexes for filtering. I said regexes, but in this case it may also include any other settings available in the Advanced Filter Display, such as segments status, tags, colors and so on:

    Advanced Filter Display in Trados Studio with a regular expression entered in the Source field. Buttons for Save, Import, and other filter actions are visible.

    Last, note that Notepad++ regex flavor is not .Net (the one used by Trados Studio), but PCRE (I believe). Both flavors are quite similar, but sometimes a specific regex works only as expected in one of them. Take that into account…

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 4:47 AM (GMT 0) on 5 Mar 2024]
  •  

    Oddly enough we have had an item on our own AppStore backlog for a few years to build something similar to the memoQ approach. If nothing else I quite like the ability to test the expressions inside the product and save expressions for reuse.  It's remained on the backlog because we never found it more important than other things we are working on and was more of a nice to have.

    From my own perspective I think anyone who uses regex a lot will quickly look for a better tool anyway and I would 100% recommend Regex Buddy.  I think this is by far the best tool available for anyone who does a lot with regular expressions, or even anyone who just tinkers.  Forty euros for a lifelong licence is a bargain!

    I also use EditPad Pro from the same developer and as a text editor I love it... handles far larger files than any tool I have ever come across and integrates nicely with regex buddy.  Not free like Notepad++ but I've been using it for almost 20-years so the return on investment was well worth it already!

    But that would just be my opinion :-)

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  • Thanks  for this - I will dig out my notes from the presentation to try to see exactly what it was that most caught my eye about it - my instant "wow" was the ability to save regexes in the library with searchable text labels and search them and insert them into the source/target boxes from within MemoQ, which I was not aware about how to do it in Trados.

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  •  Thanks for the heads-up about Regex Buddy and EditPad Pro - the return far outstrips the licensing fees - I could rationalise that pretty quickly! The ability to save expressions for re-use in such an in-Trados tool would tie in with what grabbed my attention with the demonstration that Kevin Lossner did at WTF22. Possibly I am slightly seduced by having "everything in one place" and wanting it inside the CAT environment. Thanks again for these suggestions!

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