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How to find the longest sequence of "broken" characters using Regex in JS?

I'm trying to find the longest sequence of "broken"(different from letter, digit, space) characters in this sentence:
'Tempera####&&#^ na ##$ata 23 grad#%&.'
I really want to do it using Regex, but I'm not that familiar with the usage of Regex in JS. This is the description of the problem: https://pastebin.com/U6Uukc4b
I watched a lot of tutorials, also read bunch of articles and this is what I came up with:
let input = [
'Tempera####&&#^ na ##$ata 23 grad#%&.'
];
let print = this.print || console.log;
let gets = this.gets || ((arr, index) => () => arr[index++])(input, 0);
let message = gets();
//different from letter, digit, space
let counter = 1;
let allWords = /[a-z1-9\s]/gi;
for (let i = 0; i < message.length; i++) {
let current = message[i];
// allWords.lastIndex = 0;
let isExisting = allWords.test(current);
if (current === '.') {
break;
}
if (isExisting) {
counter = 1;
} else {
counter++;
}
}
print(counter)
Here the answer should be 8 , because we have 8 consecutive symbols inside the word "Tempera####&&#^" , which are not letter, digit or space.
Unfortunately this doesn't work. I'm still trying to understand where is my mistake, so I'll be very thankful if someone can "show me the way".

Use a regular expression that matches the opposite ([^.....]) and as many times as possible (+). Then check the size of all matches and pick the longest length. As there is a special role for the point (which apparently is always at the end), consider it as not broken.
let allWords = /[^a-z1-9\s.]+/gi;
let input = [
'Tempera####&&#^ na ##$ata 23 grad#%&.'
];
for (let message of input) {
let results = message.match(allWords) ?? [];
let counter = Math.max(0, ...results.map(({length}) => length));
console.log("longest", counter);
}

const input = 'Tempera####&&#^ na ##$ata 23 grad#%&.';
function findLongestSubstring(input) {
let longest = '';
let current = '';
for (let i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
if (input[i].match(/[^a-zA-Z\d\s]/)) {
current += input[i];
} else {
if (current.length > longest.length) {
longest = current;
}
current = '';
}
}
return longest.length;
}
console.log(findLongestSubstring(input));

function that randomly sorts through letters and changes them not working

I am making a javascript function that will input a string, and output a "spongebob mocking text"
basically, you input "Hello, this is a message to the world" and you would get "HeLlO, ThIS iS a MeSsAGe tO tHE wORlD"
basically, randomly decide wheather to capitalize a letter or not. I made a function which i thought would do that, but it didn't work. here is the code that I tested in the js console:
function memify(input) { // function called memify()
var il = input.length; // gets the length of the input
var newinput = input; // creates a new variable that will be changed from input.
for (var i=0;i>il;i++) {
var rng = Math.floor((Math.random()*2)); // random number between 0 and 1. 0 = upper 1 = lower
if (rng === 0) {
newinput.charAt(i).toUpperCase();
}
else {
newinput.charAt(i).toLowerCase();
}
}
return newinput;
}
var text = prompt();
var textmeme = memify(text);
alert(textmeme);
Why is this not working? Do I have an error in my code? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

When you do
newinput.charAt(i).toUpperCase();
you're creating a new uppercase character, but you aren't doing anything with it; it's just an unused expression, so there's no visible change. Primitives (including strings) are immutable - you should explicitly reassign a string to something else (eg newString += newinput.charAt(i).toUpperCase();) to see an effect.
You also need to use
for (var i = 0; i < il; i++) {
// ^
instead of
for (var i = 0; i > il; i++) {
// ^
else, no iterations will run at all.
function memify(input) { // function called memify()
var il = input.length; // gets the length of the input
let changedStr = '';
for (var i = 0; i < il; i++) {
var rng = Math.floor((Math.random() * 2)); // random number between 0 and 1. 0 = upper 1 = lower
if (rng === 0) {
changedStr += input.charAt(i).toUpperCase();
} else {
changedStr += input.charAt(i).toLowerCase();
}
}
return changedStr;
}
var text = prompt();
var textmeme = memify(text);
console.log(textmeme);
Another option, using .map, which looks much cleaner IMO:
const memify = input => [...input]
.map(char => Math.random() < 0.5 ? char.toUpperCase() : char.toLowerCase())
.join('');
console.log(memify(prompt()));

Or more concise, safer and generally better solution :). It does not require for loop, checking length of string and other error prone stuff.
function memify(input) {
var rng = () => Math.random() > 0.5;
var res = input.split('').map( letter =>
rng() ? letter.toUpperCase() : letter.toLowerCase()
).join('');
return res;
}
var textmeme = memify("Hello World");
console.log(textmeme);
Please up-vote if it was helpful :)

How make a more concise code using the For statement?

I'm new in StackOverflow and JavaScript, I'm trying to get the first letter that repeats from a string considering both uppercase and lowercase letters and counting and obtaining results using the for statement. The problem is that the form I used is too long Analyzing the situation reaches such a point that maybe you can only use a "For" statement for this exercise, which I get to iterate, but not with a cleaner and reduced code has me completely blocked, this is the reason why I request help to understand and continue with the understanding and use of this sentence. In this case, the result was tested in a JavaScript script inside a function and 3 "For" sentences obtaining quite positive results, but I can not create it in 1 only For (Sorry for my bad english google translate)
I making in HTML with JavasScript
var letter = "SYAHSVCXCyXSssssssyBxAVMZsXhZV";
var contendor = [];
var calc = [];
var mycalc = 0;
letter = letter.toUpperCase()
console.log(letter)
function repeats(){
for (var i = 0; i < letter.length; i++) {
if (contendor.includes(letter[i])) {
}else{
contendor.push(letter[i])
calc.push(0)
}
}
for (var p = 0; p < letter.length; p++) {
for (var l = 0; l < contendor.length; l++) {
if (letter[p] == contendor[l]) {
calc [l]= calc [l]+1
}
}
}
for (var f = 0; f < calc.length; f++) {
if ( calc[f] > calc[mycalc]) {
mycalc = f
}
}
}
repeats()
console.log("The most repeated letter its: " + contendor[mycalc]);
I Expected: A result with concise code

It would probably be a lot more concise to use a regular expression: match a character, then lookahead for more characters until you can match that first character again:
var letter = "SYAHSVCXCyXSssssssyBxAVMZsXhZV";
const firstRepeatedRegex = /(.)(?=.*\1)/;
console.log(letter.match(firstRepeatedRegex)[1]);
Of course, if you aren't sure whether a given string contains a repeated character, check that the match isn't null before trying to extract the character:
const input = 'abcde';
const firstRepeatedRegex = /(.)(?=.*\1)/;
const match = input.match(firstRepeatedRegex);
if (match) {
console.log(match[0]);
} else {
console.log('No repeated characters');
}
You could also turn the input into an array and use .find to find the first character whose lastIndexOf is not the same as the index of the character being iterated over:
const getFirstRepeatedCharacter = (str) => {
const chars = [...str];
const char = chars.find((char, i) => chars.lastIndexOf(char) !== i);
return char || 'No repeated characters';
};
console.log(getFirstRepeatedCharacter('abcde'));
console.log(getFirstRepeatedCharacter('SYAHSVCXCyXSssssssyBxAVMZsXhZV'));
If what you're actually looking for is the character that occurs most often, case-insensitive, use reduce to transform the string into an object indexed by character, whose values are the number of occurrences of that character, then identify the largest value:
const getMostRepeatedCharacter = (str) => {
const charsByCount = [...str.toUpperCase()].reduce((a, char) => {
a[char] = (a[char] || 0) + 1;
return a;
}, {});
const mostRepeatedEntry = Object.entries(charsByCount).reduce((a, b) => a[1] >= b[1] ? a : b);
return mostRepeatedEntry[0];
};
console.log(getMostRepeatedCharacter('abcde'));
console.log(getMostRepeatedCharacter('SYAHSVCXCyXSssssssyBxAVMZsXhZV'));

If the first repeated character is what you want, you can push it into an array and check if the character already exists
function getFirstRepeating( str ){
chars = []
for ( var i = 0; i < str.length; i++){
var char = str.charAt(i);
if ( chars.includes( char ) ){
return char;
} else {
chars.push( char );
}
}
return -1;
}
This will return the first repeating character if it exists, or will return -1.
Working
function getFirstRepeating( str ){
chars = []
for ( var i = 0; i < str.length; i++){
var char = str.charAt(i);
if ( chars.includes( char ) ){
return char;
} else {
chars.push( char );
}
}
return -1;
}
console.log(getFirstRepeating("SYAHSVCXCyXSssssssyBxAVMZsXhZV"))

Have you worked with JavaScript objects yet?
You should look into it.
When you loop through your string
let characters = "hemdhdksksbbd";
let charCount = {};
let max = { count: 0, ch: ""}; // will contain max
// rep letter
//Turn string into an array of letters and for
// each letter create a key in the charcount
// object , set it to 1 (meaning that's the first of
// that letter you've found) and any other time
// you see the letter, increment by 1.
characters.split("").forEach(function(character)
{
if(!charCount[character])
charCount[character] = 1;
else
charCount[character]++;
}
//charCount should now contain letters and
// their counts.
//Get the letters from charCount and find the
// max count
Object.keys(charCount). forEach (function(ch){
if(max.count < charCount[ch])
max = { count: charCount[ch], ch: ch};
}
console.log("most reps is: " , max.ch);

This is a pretty terrible solution. It takes 2 loops (reduce) and doesn't handle ties, but it's short and complicated.
Basically keep turning the results into arrays and use array methods split and reduce to find the answer. The first reduce is wrapped in Object.entries() to turn the object back into an array.
let letter = Object.entries(
"SYAHSVCXCyXSssssssyBxAVMZsXhZV".
toUpperCase().
split('').
reduce((p, c) => {
p[c] = isNaN(++p[c]) ? 1 : p[c];
return p;
}, {})
).
reduce((p, c) => p = c[1] > p[1] ? c : p);
console.log(`The most repeated letter is ${letter[0]}, ${letter[1]} times.`);

Is it a bad idea to count specific letters in string using regex?

I'm looking for letters (a to m) in the string using regex. I already found a way to do the same thing without regex, but is it possible to do this with regex and is it a good or bad idea to use regex when counting specific letters in the string?
When using regex findError.length value is wrong for me, the other way is working fine
This is how I search for letters using regex
function printerError(s) {
let findError = s.match(/[a-mA-M]+/g).toString();
let sum = (s.length - findError.length);
return sum + '/' + s.length;
}
console.log(printerError("anananaanaann"));
**
Working code
function printerError2(s) {
const goodLetters = Array.from("abcdefghijklm");
let total = s.length;
let badLetters = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < total; i++) {
if ( !goodLetters.includes(s.charAt(i)) ) {
badLetters++;
}
}
return `${badLetters}/${total}`;
}
console.log(printerError2("anananaanaann"));

This returns you the number of chars between a-mA-M in your string:
function printerError(s) {
return s.length - s.replace(/[a-mA-M]/g, '').length;
}
console.log(printerError("anananaanaann"));
Or you can even do:
function printerError(s) {
return (s.match(/[a-mA-M]/g) || []).length;
}
console.log(printerError("anananaanaann"));

Find smallest substring containing a given set of letters in a larger string

Say you have the following string:
FJKAUNOJDCUTCRHBYDLXKEODVBWTYPTSHASQQFCPRMLDXIJMYPVOHBDUGSMBLMVUMMZYHULSUIZIMZTICQORLNTOVKVAMQTKHVRIFMNTSLYGHEHFAHWWATLYAPEXTHEPKJUGDVWUDDPRQLUZMSZOJPSIKAIHLTONYXAULECXXKWFQOIKELWOHRVRUCXIAASKHMWTMAJEWGEESLWRTQKVHRRCDYXNT
LDSUPXMQTQDFAQAPYBGXPOLOCLFQNGNKPKOBHZWHRXAWAWJKMTJSLDLNHMUGVVOPSAMRUJEYUOBPFNEHPZZCLPNZKWMTCXERPZRFKSXVEZTYCXFRHRGEITWHRRYPWSVAYBUHCERJXDCYAVICPTNBGIODLYLMEYLISEYNXNMCDPJJRCTLYNFMJZQNCLAGHUDVLYIGASGXSZYPZKLAWQUDVNTWGFFY
FFSMQWUNUPZRJMTHACFELGHDZEJWFDWVPYOZEVEJKQWHQAHOCIYWGVLPSHFESCGEUCJGYLGDWPIWIDWZZXRUFXERABQJOXZALQOCSAYBRHXQQGUDADYSORTYZQPWGMBLNAQOFODSNXSZFURUNPMZGHTAJUJROIGMRKIZHSFUSKIZJJTLGOEEPBMIXISDHOAIFNFEKKSLEXSJLSGLCYYFEQBKIZZTQQ
XBQZAPXAAIFQEIXELQEZGFEPCKFPGXULLAHXTSRXDEMKFKABUTAABSLNQBNMXNEPODPGAORYJXCHCGKECLJVRBPRLHORREEIZOBSHDSCETTTNFTSMQPQIJBLKNZDMXOTRBNMTKHHCZQQMSLOAXJQKRHDGZVGITHYGVDXRTVBJEAHYBYRYKJAVXPOKHFFMEPHAGFOOPFNKQAUGYLVPWUJUPCUGGIXGR
AMELUTEPYILBIUOCKKUUBJROQFTXMZRLXBAMHSDTEKRRIKZUFNLGTQAEUINMBPYTWXULQNIIRXHHGQDPENXAJNWXULFBNKBRINUMTRBFWBYVNKNKDFR
I'm trying to find the smallest substring containing the letters ABCDA.
I tried a regex approach.
console.log(str.match(/[A].*?[B].*?[C].*?[D].*?[A]/gm).sort((a, b) => a.length - b.length)[0]);
This works, but it only find strings where ABCDA appear (in that order). Meaning it won't find substring where the letters appear in a order like this: BCDAA
I'm trying to change my regex to account for this. How would I do that without using | and type out all the different cases?

You can't.
Let's consider a special case: Assume the letters you are looking for are A, A, and B. At some point in your regexp there will certainly be a B. However, the parts to the left and to the right of the B are independent of each other, so you cannot refer from one to the other. How many As are matched in the subexpression to the right of the B depends on the number of As being already matched in the left part. This is not possible with regular expressions, so you will have to unfold all the different orders, which can be many!
Another popular example that illustrates the problem is to match opening brackets with closing brackets. It's not possible to write a regular expression asserting that in a given string a sequence of opening brackets is followed by a sequence of closing brackets of the same length. The reason for this is that to count the brackets you would need a stack machine in contrast to a finite state machine but regular expressions are limited to patterns that can be matched using FSMs.

This algorithm doesn't use a regex, but found both solutions as well.
var haystack = 'FJKAUNOJDCUTCRHBYDLXKEODVBWTYPTSHASQQFCPRMLDXIJMYPVOHBDUGSMBLMVUMMZYHULSUIZIMZTICQORLNTOVKVAMQTKHVRIFMNTSLYGHEHFAHWWATLYAPEXTHEPKJUGDVWUDDPRQLUZMSZOJPSIKAIHLTONYXAULECXXKWFQOIKELWOHRVRUCXIAASKHMWTMAJEWGEESLWRTQKVHRRCDYXNTLDSUPXMQTQDFAQAPYBGXPOLOCLFQNGNKPKOBHZWHRXAWAWJKMTJSLDLNHMUGVVOPSAMRUJEYUOBPFNEHPZZCLPNZKWMTCXERPZRFKSXVEZTYCXFRHRGEITWHRRYPWSVAYBUHCERJXDCYAVICPTNBGIODLYLMEYLISEYNXNMCDPJJRCTLYNFMJZQNCLAGHUDVLYIGASGXSZYPZKLAWQUDVNTWGFFYFFSMQWUNUPZRJMTHACFELGHDZEJWFDWVPYOZEVEJKQWHQAHOCIYWGVLPSHFESCGEUCJGYLGDWPIWIDWZZXRUFXERABQJOXZALQOCSAYBRHXQQGUDADYSORTYZQPWGMBLNAQOFODSNXSZFURUNPMZGHTAJUJROIGMRKIZHSFUSKIZJJTLGOEEPBMIXISDHOAIFNFEKKSLEXSJLSGLCYYFEQBKIZZTQQXBQZAPXAAIFQEIXELQEZGFEPCKFPGXULLAHXTSRXDEMKFKABUTAABSLNQBNMXNEPODPGAORYJXCHCGKECLJVRBPRLHORREEIZOBSHDSCETTTNFTSMQPQIJBLKNZDMXOTRBNMTKHHCZQQMSLOAXJQKRHDGZVGITHYGVDXRTVBJEAHYBYRYKJAVXPOKHFFMEPHAGFOOPFNKQAUGYLVPWUJUPCUGGIXGRAMELUTEPYILBIUOCKKUUBJROQFTXMZRLXBAMHSDTEKRRIKZUFNLGTQAEUINMBPYTWXULQNIIRXHHGQDPENXAJNWXULFBNKBRINUMTRBFWBYVNKNKDFR';
var needle = 'ABCDA'; // the order of letters doesn't matter
var letters = {};
needle.split('').forEach(function(ch) {
letters[ch] = letters[ch] || 0;
letters[ch]++;
});
var shortestSubstringLength = haystack.length;
var shortestSubstrings = []; // storage for found substrings
var startingPos = 0;
var length;
var currentPos;
var notFound;
var letterKeys = Object.keys(letters); // unique leters
do {
lettersLeft = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(letters)); // copy letters count object
notFound = false;
posStart = haystack.length;
posEnd = 0;
letterKeys.forEach(function(ch) {
currentPos = startingPos;
while (!notFound && lettersLeft[ch] > 0) {
currentPos = haystack.indexOf(ch, currentPos);
if (currentPos >= 0) {
lettersLeft[ch]--;
posStart = Math.min(currentPos, posStart);
posEnd = Math.max(currentPos, posEnd);
currentPos++;
} else {
notFound = true;
}
}
});
if (!notFound) {
length = posEnd - posStart + 1;
startingPos = posStart + 1; // starting position for next iteration
}
if (!notFound && length === shortestSubstringLength) {
shortestSubstrings.push(haystack.substr(posStart, length));
}
if (!notFound && length < shortestSubstringLength) {
shortestSubstrings = [haystack.substr(posStart, length)];
shortestSubstringLength = length;
}
} while (!notFound);
console.log(shortestSubstrings);

Maybe not as clear as using regex could be (well, for me regex are never really clear :D ) you can use brute force (not so brute)
Create an index of "valid" points of your string (those with the letters you want) and iterate with a double loop over it getting substrings containing at least 5 of those points, checking that they are valid solutions. Maybe not the most efficient way, but easy to implement, to understand, and probably to optimize.
var haystack="UGDVWUDDPRQLUZMSZOJPSIKAIHLTONYXAULECXXKWFQOIKELWOHRVRUCXIAASKHMWTMAJEWGEESLWRTQKVHRRCDYXNTLDSUPXMQTQDFAQAPYBGXPOLOCLFQNGNKPKOBHZWHRXAWAWJKMTJSLDLNHMUGVVOPSAMRUJEYUOBPFNEHPZZCLPNZKWMTCXERPZRFKSXVEZTYCXFRHRGEITWHRRYPWSVAYBUHCERJXDCYAVICPTNBGIODLYLMEYLISEYNXNMCDPJJRCTLYNFMJZQNCLAGHUDVLYIGASGXSZYPZKLAWQUDVNTWGFFYFFSMQWUNUPZRJMTHACFELGHDZEJWFDWVPYOZEVEJKQWHQAHOCIYWGVLPSHFESCGEUCJGYLGDWPIWIDWZZXRUFXERABQJOXZALQOCSAYBRHXQQGUDADYSORTYZQPWGMBLNAQOFODSNXSZFURUNPMZGHTAJUJROIGMRKIZHSFUSKIZJJTLGOEEPBMIXISDHOAIFNFEKKSLEXSJLSGLCYYFEQBKIZZTQQXBQZAPXAAIFQEIXELQEZGFEPCKFPGXULLAHXTSRXDEMKFKABUTAABSLNQBNMXNEPODPGAORYJXCHCGKECLJVRBPRLHORREEIZOBSHDSCETTTNFTSMQPQIJBLKNZDMXOTRBNMTKHHCZQQMSLOAXJQKRHDGZVGITHYGVDXRTVBJEAHYBYRYKJAVXPOKHFFMEPHAGFOOPFNKQAUGYLVPWUJUPCUGGIXGR";
var needle="ABCD";
var size=haystack.length;
var candidate_substring="";
var minimal_length=size;
var solutions=new Array();
var points=Array();
for(var i=0;i<size;i++){
if(needle.indexOf(haystack[i])>-1) points.push(i);
}
var limit_i= points.length-4;
var limit_k= points.length;
for (var i=0;i<limit_i;i++){
for(var k=i;k<limit_k;k++){
if(points[k]-points[i]+1<=minimal_length){
candidate_substring=haystack.substr(points[i],points[k]-points[i]+1);
if(is_valid(candidate_substring)){
solutions.push(candidate_substring);
if(candidate_substring.length < minimal_length) minimal_length=candidate_substring.length;
}
}
}
}
document.write('<p>Solution length:'+minimal_length+'<p>');
for(var i=0;i<solutions.length;i++){
if(solutions[i].length<=minimal_length) document.write('<p>Solution:'+solutions[i]+'<p>');
}
function is_valid(candidate_substring){
//verify we've got all characters
for(var j=0;j<candidate_substring.length;j++){
if(candidate_substring.indexOf(needle.charAt(j))<0) return false;
}
//...and verify we have two "A"
if(candidate_substring.indexOf("A")==candidate_substring.lastIndexOf("A")) return false;
return true;
}

Just had this problem in an interview as a coding assignment and came up with another solution, (it's not as optimal as the one above but maybe it's easier to understand).
function MinWindowSubstring(strArr) {
const N = strArr[0];
const K = strArr[1];
const letters = {};
K.split('').forEach( (character) => {
letters[character] = letters[character] ? letters[character] + 1 : 1;
});
let possibleSequencesList = [];
const letterKeys = Object.keys(letters);
for(let i=0; i< N.length; i++) {
const char = N[i];
if (new String(letterKeys).indexOf(char) !== -1) {
// found a character in the string
// update all previus sequences
possibleSequencesList.forEach((seq) => {
if(!seq.sequenceComplete) {
seq[char] = seq[char]-1;
seq.lastIndex = i;
// check if sequence is complete
var sequenceComplete = true;
letterKeys.forEach( (letter) => {
if(seq[letter] > 0) {
sequenceComplete = false;
}
});
seq.sequenceComplete = sequenceComplete
}
})
// create a new sequence starting from it
const newSeq = {
startPoint: i,
lastIndex: i,
sequenceComplete: false,
...letters
}
newSeq[char] = newSeq[char]-1;
possibleSequencesList.push(newSeq);
}
}
// cleanup sequences
let sequencesList = possibleSequencesList.filter(sequence => sequence.sequenceComplete);
let output = [];
let minLength = N.length;
// find the smalles one
sequencesList.forEach( seq => {
if( (seq.lastIndex - seq.startPoint) < minLength) {
minLength = seq.lastIndex - seq.startPoint;
output = N.substring(seq.startPoint, seq.lastIndex + 1);
}
})
return output;
}