What I'm doing...
I would like to have a string as such:
var match = "abcd|efhi|jklm|nopq|rstu|vwxyz";
And then check whether $(element).text() is one of the match.split("|") or simply within match.
I thought I'd be able to do if($('element').text().toLowerCase().match(/^(match)$/)) { however this wouldn't work.
Question
Why doesn't my match() work and what is my best way to resolve?
Your best way to resolve is to assign a regex to match
var match = /^(abcd|efhi|jklm|nopq|rstu|vwxyz)$/i;
Note that I added i for case insensitivity, so you can get rid of toLowerCase()
if($('element').text().match(match)) {
//...
}
My approach without using RegEx
var match = "abcd|efhi|jklm|nopq|rstu|vwxyz".split('|');
if (match.indexOf($('element').text().toLowerCase()) !== -1) {
// match found
}
To match a variable string, you can create a Regexp object:
var match = "^(abcd|efhi|jklm|nopq|rstu|vwxyz)$";
var reg = new RegExp(match, 'g');
if($('element').text().toLowerCase().match(reg)) {}
To make it case insensitive:
var match = "^(abcd|efhi|jklm|nopq|rstu|vwxyz)$";
var reg = new RegExp(match, 'ig');
if($('element').text().match(reg)){}
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
Im trying to find a patterns in the sentence for regex matching.. in the code below result contains a string and we are checking if the word apple is present in it.
var patt = /apple/gi;
var newResult = patt.test(result);
I found the above code from a used case.. But i was wondering if i have more than one values and i want to check it in the string result, lets say an array with values var arr=["apple", "orange"] var patt=/arr[0]/gi will not work.. what could be the way in that scenario??
To check multiple entries, you can use the OR operator:
var patt = /apple|orange/gi;
var newResult = patt.test(result);
if you have a variable, you can do the below, IF(!) your key is regexp safe of course (that is, it doesn't contains characters which have meaning in regexp syntax):
var key = "apple";
var patt = new RegExp(key, 'gi');
var newResult = patt.test(result);
Although in this case, you might as well use indexOf:
var key = "apple";
var newResult = result.indexOf(key) > -1;
To use a string for your regex expressions, you need to create the regex using the regex constructor.
var pattern = "apple|orange";
var regex = new RegExp(pattern, "g"); // g is for global match
Read more about it here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions
I have a RegExp that I would like to make dynamic and create in a string. I want to change this:
var result:Object = value.match(/John\/(.*?) /);
to this:
var firstName:String = "John";
var result:Object = value.match(firstName + "\/(.*?) "); // this doesn't work
I'm using ActionScript but I think what would work in JavaScript would work as well here.
In Javascript you can create a new instance of the RegExp class:
var firstName:String = "John";
var result:Object = value.match(new RegExp(firstName + "\/(.*?) "));
When you use value.match(firstName + "\/(.*?) "); the first parameter to the match function is a string, but it should be a regular expression object.
I have a working example here: http://jsfiddle.net/R7KuK/
I've tried to create an array containing full regular expressions with regex delimiters and set flags, but the RegExp object parses given strings as strings, not as regular expressions.
var regex = "/wolves/i"
vs.
var regex = /wolves/i
My question is: How do I convert string-ed regex into an actual regular expression?
UPDATE: It wasn't until Felix King kindly explained to me that
var array = ["/wolves/i", "/Duck/"];
can safely become:
var array = [/wolves/i, /Duck/];
Try this:
var regexSplit = regex.split( '/' );
var realRegex = new RegExp( regexSplit[1], regexSplit[2] );
Or better:
var regexMatch = regex.match( /^\/(.*)\/([^\/]*)$/ );
var realRegex = new RegExp( regexMatch[1], regexMatch[2] );
Better cause if your regex contains '/', the first one will fail. ;)
as stolen from here:
Use the RegExp object constructor to create a regular expression from a string:
var re = new RegExp("a|b", "i");
// same as
var re = /a|b/i;