Using Regex with Smart Groups and Advanced Searches

Updated: 01 July 2021

Product: Jamf Pro

This article explains how to configure search criteria based on a regular expression (regex) when using smart groups and advanced searches for mobile devices or computers in Jamf Pro.

Regex is a type of search pattern that uses special characters to help you find information. You can use regex to search for certain characters or patterns, words or phrases, or other complex information in Jamf Pro.

Requirements

Mobile Devices: Jamf Pro 10.3.0 or later
Computers: Jamf Pro 10.7.0 or later

Log in to Jamf Pro.
Create a smart group or an advanced search for computers or mobile devices.
Select matches regex or does not match regex as the operator when creating your search criteria.

Common Regex Patterns

The following table lists some of the common regex patterns:


Regex Patterns	Description
.	Matches any character, excluding new lines
^	Matches the beginning of a line
?	Matches 0 or 1 occurrences of a value
+	Matches 1 or more times
*	Matches 0 or more times
$	Matches the end of a line
\d	Matches a numeric digit

There are many additional regex patterns that can be used to search for information in Jamf Pro, and you are not limited to the ones listed here.

Note:

The > & < characters are XML reserved characters that overlap with valid regex characters. These reserved characters must be referenced as entities when the literal character is needed.

Regex Examples and Search Logic

Example 1


Objective	Example Values	Search Criteria	Values Returned
Find all buildings that end with a number	Building Building 1 Building 2 Building 3 Building A	Criteria: Building Operator: matches regex Value: `^.+?\d$`	Building 1 Building 2 Building 3

Example 2


Objective	Example Values	Search Criteria	Values Returned
Find all devices in all labs, excluding faculty machines	LAB-ART-101 LAB-CS-101 LAB-CS-102 Professor Smith's iPad Professor Johnson's iPad	Criteria: Display Name Operator: matches regex Value: `^LAB-.*$`	LAB-ART-101 LAB-CS-101 LAB-CS-102

Example 3


Objective	Example Values	Search Criteria	Values Returned
Find all devices that do not start with the word "Professor"	Professor Smith's iPad Professor Johnson's iPad iPad - Professor Jones iPhone for Professor Davis	Criteria: Display Name Operator: does not match regex Value: `^Professor`	iPad - Professor Jones iPhone for Professor Davis

Additional Information

For more information about advanced searches and smart groups, see the following sections in the Jamf Pro Administrator's Guide: