Removing the backslash from a literal notation of a regex - javascript

I need to create a regex from user input string. This is my code. I have input with id 'regex'.
<input id='regex'/>
And this is my js code.
var regex = $('#regex').val();
regexp = new RegExp(regex);
testString = "foo is bar";
alert(testString.replace(regexp, ''));
But if I add / /g as an example to remove spaces from a string it's not working. And I get this as regexp
/\/ \/g/
is there a way to convert this to exactly like my string as regex?

If the user puts / on each side of the pattern, followed by word characters and the end of the string on the right, parse them out before passing to new RegExp, and pass the word characters as the second argument:
$('#regex').on('change', () => {
const input = $('#regex').val();
const match = input.match(/^\/(.*)\/(\w+)$/);
const pattern = match
? new RegExp(match[1], match[2])
: new RegExp(input);
console.log(pattern);
});
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<input id='regex'/>

Related

Getting the content between two characters

So I have this (example) string: 1234VAR239582358X
And I want to get what's in between VAR and X. I can easily replace it using .replace(/VAR.*X/, "replacement");
But, how would I get the /VAR.*X/as a variable?
I think what you are looking for might be
string.match(/VAR(.*)X/)[1]
The brackets around the .* mark a group. Those groups are returned inside the Array that match creates :)
If you want to only replace what's in between "VAR" and "X" it would be
string.replace(/VAR(.*)X/, "VAR" + "replacement" + "X");
Or more generic:
string.replace(/(VAR).*(X)/, "$1replacement$2");
You can try use the RegExp class, new RegExp(`${VAR}.*X`)
You can store it as variable like this,
const pattern = "VAR.*X";
const reg = new RegExp(pattern);
Then use,
.replace(reg, "replacement");
If you
want to get what's in between VAR and X
then using .* would do the job for the given example string.
But note that is will match until the end of the string, and then backtrack to the first occurrence of X it can match, being the last occurrence of the X char in the string and possible match too much.
If you want to match only the digits, you can match 1+ digits in a capture group using VAR(\d+)X
const regex = /VAR(\d+)X/;
const str = "1234VAR239582358X";
const m = str.match(regex);
if (m) {
let myVariable = m[1];
console.log(myVariable);
}
Or you can match until the first occurrence of an X char using a negated character class VAR([^\r\nX]+)X
const regex = /VAR([^\r\nX]+)X/;
const str = "1234VAR239582358X";
const m = str.match(regex);
if (m) {
let myVariable = m[1];
console.log(myVariable);
}

Need to replace a string from a long string in javascript

I have a long string
Full_str1 = 'ab#xyz.com;cab#xyz.com;c-ab#xyz.com;c.ab#xyz.com;c_ab#xyz.com;';
removable_str2 = 'ab#xyz.com;';
I need to have a replaced string which will have
resultant Final string should look like,
cab#xyz.com;c-ab#xyz.com;c.ab#xyz.com;c_ab#xyz.com;
I tried with
str3 = Full_str1.replace(new RegExp('(^|\\b)' +removable_str2, 'g'),"");
but it resulted in
cab#xyz.com;c-c.c_ab#xyz.com;
Here a soluce using two separated regex for each case :
the str to remove is at the start of the string
the str to remove is inside or at the end of the string
PS :
I couldn't perform it in one regex, because it would remove an extra ; in case of matching the string to remove inside of the global string.
const originalStr = 'ab#xyz.com;cab#xyz.com;c-ab#xyz.com;c.ab#xyz.com;ab#xyz.com;c_ab#xyz.com;';
const toRemove = 'ab#xyz.com;';
const epuredStr = originalStr
.replace(new RegExp(`^${toRemove}`, 'g'), '')
.replace(new RegExp(`;${toRemove}`, 'g'), ';');
console.log(epuredStr);
First, the dynamic part must be escaped, else, . will match any char but a line break char, and will match ab#xyz§com;, too.
Next, you need to match this only at the start of the string or after ;. So, you may use
var Full_str1 = 'ab#xyz.com;cab#xyz.com;c-ab#xyz.com;c.ab#xyz.com;c_ab#xyz.com;';
var removable_str2 = 'ab#xyz.com;';
var rx = new RegExp("(^|;)" + removable_str2.replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&'), "g");
console.log(Full_str1.replace(rx, "$1"));
// => cab#xyz.com;c-ab#xyz.com;c.ab#xyz.com;c_ab#xyz.com;
Replace "g" with "gi" for case insensitive matching.
See the regex demo. Note that (^|;) matches and captures into Group 1 start of string location (empty string) or ; and $1 in the replacement pattern restores this char in the result.
NOTE: If the pattern is known beforehand and you only want to handle ab#xyz.com; pattern, use a regex literal without escaping, Full_str1.replace(/(^|;)ab#xyz\.com;/g, "$1").
i don't find any particular description why you haven't tried like this it will give you desired result cab#xyz.com;c-ab#xyz.com;c.ab#xyz.com;c_ab#xyz.com;
const full_str1 = 'ab#xyz.com;cab#xyz.com;c-ab#xyz.com;c.ab#xyz.com;c_ab#xyz.com;';
const removable_str2 = 'ab#xyz.com;';
const result= full_str1.replace(removable_str2 , "");
console.log(result);

Access Matched Text at RegExp

I want to escape : and white space at my regex. I tried that:
var re = new RegExp(':| ', 'g');
var result = $(this).attr("id").replace(re, '\\${1}');
However it doesn't work. This is what I want to do:
Jack Kerouac => Jack\\ Kerouac
Albert:Camus => Albert\\:Camus
How can I do that?
There is no need for braces use $& to get the match within the string and use \\\\ for double slash since \\ produces single slash(one slash is for escaping).
.replace(re, '\\$&');
var str = `Jack Kerouac
Albert:Camus`;
var re = new RegExp(':| ', 'g');
console.log(str.replace(re, '\\$&'));
you can use pattern directly instead of instantiating with RegExp object.
also \\ -> produce one \ (escape), add \\\\
var re = /\:|\s/g;
var val1="fname lname";
var val2="fname:lname";
console.log(val1.replace(re,'\\\\$&'));
console.log(val2.replace(re,'\\\\$&'));
This captures more than one space character:
s.replace( \(:| )+\g, '\\\\' )
You can play with more options here - https://regex101.com/r/WW67KE/1

Use dynamic (variable) string as regex pattern in JavaScript

I want to add a (variable) tag to values with regex, the pattern works fine with PHP but I have troubles implementing it into JavaScript.
The pattern is (value is the variable):
/(?!(?:[^<]+>|[^>]+<\/a>))\b(value)\b/is
I escaped the backslashes:
var str = $("#div").html();
var regex = "/(?!(?:[^<]+>|[^>]+<\\/a>))\\b(" + value + ")\\b/is";
$("#div").html(str.replace(regex, "" + value + ""));
But this seem not to be right, I logged the pattern and its exactly what it should be.
Any ideas?
To create the regex from a string, you have to use JavaScript's RegExp object.
If you also want to match/replace more than one time, then you must add the g (global match) flag. Here's an example:
var stringToGoIntoTheRegex = "abc";
var regex = new RegExp("#" + stringToGoIntoTheRegex + "#", "g");
// at this point, the line above is the same as: var regex = /#abc#/g;
var input = "Hello this is #abc# some #abc# stuff.";
var output = input.replace(regex, "!!");
alert(output); // Hello this is !! some !! stuff.
JSFiddle demo here.
In the general case, escape the string before using as regex:
Not every string is a valid regex, though: there are some speciall characters, like ( or [. To work around this issue, simply escape the string before turning it into a regex. A utility function for that goes in the sample below:
function escapeRegExp(stringToGoIntoTheRegex) {
return stringToGoIntoTheRegex.replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&');
}
var stringToGoIntoTheRegex = escapeRegExp("abc"); // this is the only change from above
var regex = new RegExp("#" + stringToGoIntoTheRegex + "#", "g");
// at this point, the line above is the same as: var regex = /#abc#/g;
var input = "Hello this is #abc# some #abc# stuff.";
var output = input.replace(regex, "!!");
alert(output); // Hello this is !! some !! stuff.
JSFiddle demo here.
Note: the regex in the question uses the s modifier, which didn't exist at the time of the question, but does exist -- a s (dotall) flag/modifier in JavaScript -- today.
If you are trying to use a variable value in the expression, you must use the RegExp "constructor".
var regex = "(?!(?:[^<]+>|[^>]+<\/a>))\b(" + value + ")\b";
new RegExp(regex, "is")
I found I had to double slash the \b to get it working. For example to remove "1x" words from a string using a variable, I needed to use:
str = "1x";
var regex = new RegExp("\\b"+str+"\\b","g"); // same as inv.replace(/\b1x\b/g, "")
inv=inv.replace(regex, "");
You don't need the " to define a regular expression so just:
var regex = /(?!(?:[^<]+>|[^>]+<\/a>))\b(value)\b/is; // this is valid syntax
If value is a variable and you want a dynamic regular expression then you can't use this notation; use the alternative notation.
String.replace also accepts strings as input, so you can do "fox".replace("fox", "bear");
Alternative:
var regex = new RegExp("/(?!(?:[^<]+>|[^>]+<\/a>))\b(value)\b/", "is");
var regex = new RegExp("/(?!(?:[^<]+>|[^>]+<\/a>))\b(" + value + ")\b/", "is");
var regex = new RegExp("/(?!(?:[^<]+>|[^>]+<\/a>))\b(.*?)\b/", "is");
Keep in mind that if value contains regular expressions characters like (, [ and ? you will need to escape them.
I found this thread useful - so I thought I would add the answer to my own problem.
I wanted to edit a database configuration file (datastax cassandra) from a node application in javascript and for one of the settings in the file I needed to match on a string and then replace the line following it.
This was my solution.
dse_cassandra_yaml='/etc/dse/cassandra/cassandra.yaml'
// a) find the searchString and grab all text on the following line to it
// b) replace all next line text with a newString supplied to function
// note - leaves searchString text untouched
function replaceStringNextLine(file, searchString, newString) {
fs.readFile(file, 'utf-8', function(err, data){
if (err) throw err;
// need to use double escape '\\' when putting regex in strings !
var re = "\\s+(\\-\\s(.*)?)(?:\\s|$)";
var myRegExp = new RegExp(searchString + re, "g");
var match = myRegExp.exec(data);
var replaceThis = match[1];
var writeString = data.replace(replaceThis, newString);
fs.writeFile(file, writeString, 'utf-8', function (err) {
if (err) throw err;
console.log(file + ' updated');
});
});
}
searchString = "data_file_directories:"
newString = "- /mnt/cassandra/data"
replaceStringNextLine(dse_cassandra_yaml, searchString, newString );
After running, it will change the existing data directory setting to the new one:
config file before:
data_file_directories:
- /var/lib/cassandra/data
config file after:
data_file_directories:
- /mnt/cassandra/data
Much easier way: use template literals.
var variable = 'foo'
var expression = `.*${variable}.*`
var re = new RegExp(expression, 'g')
re.test('fdjklsffoodjkslfd') // true
re.test('fdjklsfdjkslfd') // false
Using string variable(s) content as part of a more complex composed regex expression (es6|ts)
This example will replace all urls using my-domain.com to my-other-domain (both are variables).
You can do dynamic regexs by combining string values and other regex expressions within a raw string template. Using String.raw will prevent javascript from escaping any character within your string values.
// Strings with some data
const domainStr = 'my-domain.com'
const newDomain = 'my-other-domain.com'
// Make sure your string is regex friendly
// This will replace dots for '\'.
const regexUrl = /\./gm;
const substr = `\\\.`;
const domain = domainStr.replace(regexUrl, substr);
// domain is a regex friendly string: 'my-domain\.com'
console.log('Regex expresion for domain', domain)
// HERE!!! You can 'assemble a complex regex using string pieces.
const re = new RegExp( String.raw `([\'|\"]https:\/\/)(${domain})(\S+[\'|\"])`, 'gm');
// now I'll use the regex expression groups to replace the domain
const domainSubst = `$1${newDomain}$3`;
// const page contains all the html text
const result = page.replace(re, domainSubst);
note: Don't forget to use regex101.com to create, test and export REGEX code.
var string = "Hi welcome to stack overflow"
var toSearch = "stack"
//case insensitive search
var result = string.search(new RegExp(toSearch, "i")) > 0 ? 'Matched' : 'notMatched'
https://jsfiddle.net/9f0mb6Lz/
Hope this helps

JavaScript regular expression to match hyphenated words?

I'd like a JavaScript regular expression that can match a string either at the start of another string, or after a hyphen in the string.
For example, "milne" and "lee" and "lees" should all match "Lees-Milne".
This is my code so far:
var name = "Lees-Milne";
var text = "lee";
// I don't know what 'text' is ahead of time, so
// best to use RegExp constructor.
var re = RegExp("^" + text | "-" + text, "i");
alert(re.exec(name.toLowerCase()));
However, this returns null. What am I doing wrong?
You could also use:
var re = RegExp("(?:^|-)" + text, "i");
Don't forget to escape regex meta characters in text if it's not an expression it self.
JavaScript has no built in function for that, but you could use:
function quotemeta(str){
return str.replace(/[.+*?|\\^$(){}\[\]-]/g, '\\$&');
}

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