Forum Discussion
A way to filter gibberish Emails and Usernames
Hello,
At my job I frequently have to go through "fake" accounts and deactivate them. To investigate them I export them into an Excel Doc and while I have some Conditional Formatting to catch the frequent repeat accounts it is not enough to catch all of them. I occasionally have to manually review anywhere from 1k to 5k accounts.
I was wondering if there is a formula to identify gibberish email names or usernames. Essentially they look like this and are separated by their own columns: EMAIL: YASFGE1245 and Username: Nm8878.
I thought about using a VLOOKUP to compare to a list of known patterns but there are so many that it can cause our slow computers to lock up.
Identifying gibberish or fake accounts based on patterns in email names or usernames can be challenging, as there are countless variations. However, you can use some Excel functions and formulas to create a set of rules that might help in flagging potential gibberish.
Here is a basic example to get you started:
Let's assume your email addresses are in column A, and usernames are in column B. You can add a new column (let's say column C) with a formula to check for patterns. Use the following formula in cell C2 and drag it down:
=IF(AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2)), ISNUMBER(SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{2,}[0-9]{4,}$", B2))), "Potential Gibberish", "Normal")
This formula checks if both the email and username follow a pattern of starting with letters and ending with numbers. You might need to adjust these patterns based on the specific characteristics of the accounts you consider gibberish.
Explanation of the formula:
- SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2): Checks if the email starts with at least 3 letters and ends with at least 4 numbers.
- SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{2,}[0-9]{4,}$", B2): Checks if the username starts with at least 2 letters and ends with at least 4 numbers.
- AND(ISNUMBER(...), ISNUMBER(...)): Checks if both conditions are true.
- If both conditions are true, it returns "Potential Gibberish"; otherwise, it returns "Normal".
Feel free to adjust the patterns in the SEARCH functions based on your observations of gibberish accounts. This is just a starting point, and you may need to refine the criteria based on the specific characteristics of the accounts you encounter. The text was revised with the AI.
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Hope this will help you.
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Hi NikolinoDE
Liked your post as I learned something with your SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2)
Quick questions if you don't mind...
#1 SEARCH being case-insensitive wouldn't the following work as well?SEARCH("^[a-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2) or SEARCH("^[A-Z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2)#2 What's the meaning of the $ sign at the end? Can you provide a pointer to doc. or briefly explain?
Thanks Much
- Case Insensitivity in SEARCH:
Yes, you're correct. The SEARCH function in Excel is case-insensitive by default. Therefore, both of the following patterns would work:
- SEARCH("^[a-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2): This pattern checks if the string starts with at least 3 lowercase letters and ends with at least 4 numbers.
- SEARCH("^[A-Z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2): This pattern checks if the string starts with at least 3 uppercase letters and ends with at least 4 numbers.
You can use either of these patterns based on your specific needs and the characteristics of the data you're working with.
- Meaning of the $ sign:
In regular expressions (regex), the $ sign represents the end of a line or string. In the context of the pattern ^[A-Za-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$:
- ^[A-Za-z]{3,}: This part ensures that the string starts (^) with at least 3 uppercase or lowercase letters.
- [0-9]{4,}$: This part ensures that the string ends ($) with at least 4 numeric digits.
So, the $ ensures that the pattern is matched only when the specified conditions apply from the beginning to the end of the string.
Thankyou NikolinoDE! Is there a way to make it also check for gibberish names that dont have numbers in them like dxus or gjdfvxbtgvxcg?
To check for gibberish names that don't have numbers, you can modify the formula to include a condition for names without numbers.
Here is an updated formula:
=IF(AND(
OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2)), ISNUMBER(SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{2,}[0-9]{4,}$", B2))),
NOT(OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("[0-9]", A2)), ISNUMBER(SEARCH("[0-9]", B2))))
),
"Potential Gibberish",
"Normal"
)
Explanation:
- OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{3,}[0-9]{4,}$", A2)), ISNUMBER(SEARCH("^[A-Za-z]{2,}[0-9]{4,}$", B2))): Checks if either the email or username follows the pattern of starting with letters and ending with numbers.
- NOT(OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("[0-9]", A2)), ISNUMBER(SEARCH("[0-9]", B2)))): Checks if neither the email nor the username contains any numbers.
- AND(..., ...): Checks if both conditions are true.
If both conditions are true, it returns "Potential Gibberish"; otherwise, it returns "Normal".
This formula now considers accounts with names that don't have numbers as potential gibberish. Adjustments can be made based on your specific observations and patterns of gibberish names.
