What causes "Found both regex and exact in the splits for splitWord" in stanfordnlp/CoreNLP?

Remove either the -regex or the -exact arguments, keeping one split style

stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · SsurgeonParseException

Found both regex and exact in the splits for splitWord

Error message

Found both regex and exact in the splits for splitWord

What it means

The splitWord (SplitWord) edit splits a matched word into pieces specified either by regex patterns or by exact string matches, but not both. parseEditLine throws SsurgeonParseException when the edit line contains both -regex and -exact split specifications.

Solutions

Remove either the -regex or the -exact arguments, keeping one split style
Split into two separate edit lines (or rules) if both split kinds are genuinely needed
Check rule-generation code that emits splitWord lines so it writes mutually exclusive specs

Example fix

# before
splitWord -node:word -regex:"a,b" -exact:"ab"
# after
splitWord -node:word -regex:"a,b"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

boolean validSplitWord(String line) {
  boolean hasRegex = line.contains("-regex:");
  boolean hasExact = line.contains("-exact:");
  return line.startsWith("splitWord") && hasRegex ^ hasExact;
}

Try / catch

try {
  SsurgeonEdit e = Ssurgeon.parseEditLine(line);
} catch (SsurgeonParseException ex) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("splitWord: choose -regex OR -exact: " + line, ex);
}

Prevention

Treat -regex and -exact as mutually exclusive when generating rules
Split mixed requirements into separate rules
Add a unit test covering each splitWord rule

When it happens

Trigger: Edit line 'splitWord -node:w -regex:... -exact:...' — argsBox.regex and argsBox.exact both non-empty triggers the throw.

Common situations: Merging two split rules into one line by concatenation, or an auto-generated rule that appends both kinds of splits without checking.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/19da078fc777ff2d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/semgrex/ssurgeon/Ssurgeon.java:681

          reln = GrammaticalRelation.valueOf(argsBox.reln);
        }
        return new RemoveEdge(reln, argsBox.govNodeName, argsBox.dep);
      } else if (command.equalsIgnoreCase(RemoveNamedEdge.LABEL)) {
        return new RemoveNamedEdge(argsBox.edge);
      } else if (command.equalsIgnoreCase(KillAllIncomingEdges.LABEL)) {
        if (argsBox.nodes.size() != 1) {
          throw new SsurgeonParseException("Cannot make a KillAllIncomingEdges out of " + argsBox.nodes.size() + " nodes");
        }
        return new KillAllIncomingEdges(argsBox.nodes.get(0));
      } else if (command.equalsIgnoreCase(CombineMWT.LABEL)) {
        return new CombineMWT(argsBox.nodes, argsBox.annotations.get("word"));
      } else if (command.equalsIgnoreCase(SetPhraseHead.LABEL)) {
        GrammaticalRelation reln = GrammaticalRelation.valueOf(language, argsBox.reln);
        return new SetPhraseHead(argsBox.nodes, argsBox.headIndex, reln, argsBox.weight);
      } else if (command.equalsIgnoreCase(SplitWord.LABEL)) {
        GrammaticalRelation reln = GrammaticalRelation.valueOf(language, argsBox.reln);
        if (argsBox.regex.size() > 0 && argsBox.exact.size() > 0) {
          throw new SsurgeonParseException("Found both regex and exact in the splits for splitWord");
        }
        if (argsBox.regex.size() > 0) {
          return new SplitWord(argsBox.nodes.get(0), argsBox.regex, argsBox.headIndex, reln, argsBox.name, false);
        } else {
          return new SplitWord(argsBox.nodes.get(0), argsBox.exact, argsBox.headIndex, reln, argsBox.name, true);
        }
      } else if (command.equalsIgnoreCase(ReindexGraph.LABEL)) {
        return new ReindexGraph();
      }
      throw new SsurgeonParseException("Error in SsurgeonEdit.parseEditLine: command '"+command+"' is not supported");
    } catch (SsurgeonParseException e) {
      throw new SsurgeonParseException("Unable to process Ssurgeon edit line: " + editLine, e);
    }
  }

  //public static SsurgeonPattern fromXML(String xmlString) throws Exception {
  //SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
  //Document jdomDoc = builder.build(xmlString);

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