Indexof doesn't find the string when the search text contains two spaces

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Posted on by MelissaReed

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I am parsing a generated email to pluck out specific Change Request #'s

When a new email comes in (with a subject line match)

Convert the body of the email to simple text using HTML To Text action

Use IndexOf() to locate anchor text to pluck out the value.

For example, to pluck out the Change Request # for Linux from the email body text:

Linux Change Request: CHG0099999 <<<< note there are two spaces after the colon

I wrote a Compose statement to get the position of the anchor text:

indexOf(body('Html_to_text'),'Linux Change Request: ') <<<two spaces after colon

It returns a -1 when the search text ends in a double space.

If I get rid of the 2nd space it works (gets a match and returns the string's position)

Is this a bug in the software? Something about double-spaces in IndexOf() search parameter that it doesn't like?

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VJR 7,635 on at

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Hi @MelissaReed

When I give the input same as the one in your post
Input:
Linux Change Request: CHG0099999

The output of indexOf shows as 0 (which is correct because the desired string starts from 0th position)
I'm using the same Expression from your post.

indexOf(triggerBody()['text'],'Linux Change Request: ')

As an example I gave another input as below
Input:
check now Linux Change Request: CHG0099999

and it returned output as 10 (which is correct because now it starts from 10th position)

The only thing I am not doing in my sample process is the Html to text, but it shouldn't matter because double spaces are working fine in the indexOf expression.

Just make sure if there is some kind of invisible character like a newline or a carriage return or if something else in the input string is coming after doing the html to text.

This can be done by "seeing" the invisible characters in an Editor like Notepad++ [free] (or maybe UltraEdit?)

Below is an example using Notepad++ (View menu->Show symbol->Show all characters)

The single dot within blue box is a single space
The two dots within the red box are double spaces
And CR implies carriage return whereas LF implies line feed.

The same text above cannot be viewed with a normal text editor below

That way you can see if something is not matching and causing the indexOf to show -1 instead of the right position.

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MelissaReed 292 on at

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Thanks for the reply. I actually put the text through an ASCII converter to see if what looked like a space was something other than an ASCII 32. It came through as 32 and 32.
When I take out the space it works. When I make it two spaces, it fails.

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