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how to use regex with variables instead of string?

Asked a few times, but I can't get it to work.
I'm doing a lot of these all over a script replacing various class names.
label.className.replace(/(?:^|\s)ui-icon-checkbox-on(?!\S)/g , ' ui-icon-globe');
and wanted to replace my replace call with a generic function which is being passed a string like ui-icon-checkbox-on and returns a regex object to handle my replace.
However, this is not working = it's not replacing anything:
var foo = function (className) {
return new RegExp("(?:^|\s)" + className + "(?!\S)", "g");
};
label.className = label.className.replace(foo("ui-icon-checkbox-on"), ' ui-icon-globe');
And I'm at a loss trying to understand why.
Question:
How to correctly create a regex object, and use it to replace a string with another string?
Thanks!
PS: and no, I don't want to use jQuery to do it :-)

You need to escape the escaped RegExp sequences:
var foo2 = function (className) {
return new RegExp("(?:^|\\s)" + className + "(?!\\S)", "g");
//----------------------^^^---------------------^^^
};
Your original function would return:
foo("ASD")
// returns:
/(?:^|s)ASD(?!S)/g
but we're after this:
foo2("ASD")
// returns:
/(?:^|\s)ASD(?!\S)/g

Simple:
var rx = /[W].*/;
var text = "Hello World"
text.replace( rx, "$1" );

Regex to get word started with # in javascript

I have a problem replace certain words started with #. I have the following code
var x="#google",
eval("var pattern = /" + '\\b' + x + '\\b');
txt.replace(pattern,"MyNewWord");
when I use the following code it works fine
var x="google",
eval("var pattern = /" + '\\b' + x + '\\b');
txt.replace(pattern,"MyNewWord");
it works fine
any suggestion how to make the first part of code working
ps. I use eval because x will be a user input.

The problem is that \b represents a boundary between a "word" character (letter, digit, or underscore) and a "non-word" character (anything else). # is a non-word character, so \b# means "a # that is preceded by a word character" — which is not at all what you want. If anything, you want something more like \B#; \B is a non-boundary, so \B# means "a # that is not preceded by a word character".
I'm guessing that you want your words to be separated by whitespace, instead of by a programming-language concept of what makes something a "word" character or a "non-word" character; for that, you could write:
var x = '#google'; // or 'google'
var pattern = new RegExp('(^|\\s)' + x);
var result = txt.replace(pattern, '$1' + 'MyNewWord');
Edited to add: If x is really supposed to be a literal string, not a regex at all, then you should "quote" all of the special characters in it, with a backslash. You can do that by writing this:
var x = '#google'; // or 'google' or '$google' or whatever
var quotedX = x.replace(/[^\w\s]/g, '\\$&');
var pattern = new RegExp('(^|\\s)' + quotedX);
var result = txt.replace(pattern, '$1' + 'MyNewWord');

Make you patter something like this:
/(#)?\w*/

If you want to make a Regular Expression, try this instead of eval:
var pattern = new RegExp(x);
Btw the line:
eval("var pattern = /" + '\\b' + x + '\\b');
will make an error because of no enclose pattern, should be :
eval("var pattern = /" + '\\b' + x + '\\b/');

How about
var x = "#google";
x.match(/^\#/);

javascript find and replace a dynamic pattern in a string

I have a dynamic pattern that I have been using the code below to find
var matcher = new RegExp("%" + dynamicnumber + ":", "g");
var found = matcher.test(textinput);
I need the pattern to have a new requirement, which is to include an additional trailing 5 characters of either y or n. And then delete it or replace it with a '' (nothing).
I tried this syntax for the pattern, but obviously it does not work.
var matcher = new RegExp("%" + dynamicnumber + ":" + /([yn]{5})/, "g");
Any tip is appreciated
TIA.

You should only pass the regex string into the RegExp c'tor :
var re = new RegExp("%" + number + ":" + "([yn]{5})", "g");

var matcher = new RegExp("(%" + number + ":)([yn]{5})", "g");
Then replace it with the contents of the first capture group.

Use quotes instead of slashes:
var matcher = new RegExp("%" + number + ":([yn]{5})", "g");
Also, make sure that dynamicnumber or number are valid RegExps. special characters have to be prefixed by a double slash, \\, a literal double slash has to be written as four slashes: \\\\.

Javascript find and replace a set of characters?

I have a string and I need to replace all the ' and etc to their proper value
I am using
var replace = str.replace(new RegExp("[']", "g"), "'");
To do so, but the problem is it seems to be replacing ' for each character (so for example, ' becomes '''''
Any help?

Use this:
var str = str.replace(/'/g, "'");
['] is a character class. It means any of the characters inside of the braces.
This is why your /[']/ regex replaces every single char of ' by the replacement string.
If you want to use new RegExp instead of a regex literal:
var str = str.replace(new RegExp(''', 'g'), "'");
This has no benefit, except if you want to generate regexps at runtime.

Take out the brackets, which makes a character class (any characters inside it match):
var replace = str.replace(new RegExp("'", "g"), "'");
or even better, use a literal:
var replace = str.replace(/'/g, "'");
Edit: See this question on how to escape HTML: How to unescape html in javascript?

Rather than using a bunch of regex replaces for this, I would do something like this and let the browser take care of the decoding for you:
function HtmlDecode(s) {
var el = document.createElement("div");
el.innerHTML = s;
return el.innerText || el.textContent;
}

How can I concatenate regex literals in JavaScript?

Is it possible to do something like this?
var pattern = /some regex segment/ + /* comment here */
/another segment/;
Or do I have to use new RegExp() syntax and concatenate a string? I'd prefer to use the literal as the code is both more self-evident and concise.

Here is how to create a regular expression without using the regular expression literal syntax. This lets you do arbitary string manipulation before it becomes a regular expression object:
var segment_part = "some bit of the regexp";
var pattern = new RegExp("some regex segment" + /*comment here */
segment_part + /* that was defined just now */
"another segment");
If you have two regular expression literals, you can in fact concatenate them using this technique:
var regex1 = /foo/g;
var regex2 = /bar/y;
var flags = (regex1.flags + regex2.flags).split("").sort().join("").replace(/(.)(?=.*\1)/g, "");
var regex3 = new RegExp(expression_one.source + expression_two.source, flags);
// regex3 is now /foobar/gy
It's just more wordy than just having expression one and two being literal strings instead of literal regular expressions.

Just randomly concatenating regular expressions objects can have some adverse side effects. Use the RegExp.source instead:
var r1 = /abc/g;
var r2 = /def/;
var r3 = new RegExp(r1.source + r2.source,
(r1.global ? 'g' : '')
+ (r1.ignoreCase ? 'i' : '') +
(r1.multiline ? 'm' : ''));
console.log(r3);
var m = 'test that abcdef and abcdef has a match?'.match(r3);
console.log(m);
// m should contain 2 matches
This will also give you the ability to retain the regular expression flags from a previous RegExp using the standard RegExp flags.
jsFiddle

I don't quite agree with the "eval" option.
var xxx = /abcd/;
var yyy = /efgh/;
var zzz = new RegExp(eval(xxx)+eval(yyy));
will give "//abcd//efgh//" which is not the intended result.
Using source like
var zzz = new RegExp(xxx.source+yyy.source);
will give "/abcdefgh/" and that is correct.
Logicaly there is no need to EVALUATE, you know your EXPRESSION. You just need its SOURCE or how it is written not necessarely its value. As for the flags, you just need to use the optional argument of RegExp.
In my situation, I do run in the issue of ^ and $ being used in several expression I am trying to concatenate together! Those expressions are grammar filters used accross the program. Now I wan't to use some of them together to handle the case of PREPOSITIONS.
I may have to "slice" the sources to remove the starting and ending ^( and/or )$ :)
Cheers, Alex.

Problem If the regexp contains back-matching groups like \1.
var r = /(a|b)\1/ // Matches aa, bb but nothing else.
var p = /(c|d)\1/ // Matches cc, dd but nothing else.
Then just contatenating the sources will not work. Indeed, the combination of the two is:
var rp = /(a|b)\1(c|d)\1/
rp.test("aadd") // Returns false
The solution:
First we count the number of matching groups in the first regex, Then for each back-matching token in the second, we increment it by the number of matching groups.
function concatenate(r1, r2) {
var count = function(r, str) {
return str.match(r).length;
}
var numberGroups = /([^\\]|^)(?=\((?!\?:))/g; // Home-made regexp to count groups.
var offset = count(numberGroups, r1.source);
var escapedMatch = /[\\](?:(\d+)|.)/g; // Home-made regexp for escaped literals, greedy on numbers.
var r2newSource = r2.source.replace(escapedMatch, function(match, number) { return number?"\\"+(number-0+offset):match; });
return new RegExp(r1.source+r2newSource,
(r1.global ? 'g' : '')
+ (r1.ignoreCase ? 'i' : '')
+ (r1.multiline ? 'm' : ''));
}
Test:
var rp = concatenate(r, p) // returns /(a|b)\1(c|d)\2/
rp.test("aadd") // Returns true

Providing that:
you know what you do in your regexp;
you have many regex pieces to form a pattern and they will use same flag;
you find it more readable to separate your small pattern chunks into an array;
you also want to be able to comment each part for next dev or yourself later;
you prefer to visually simplify your regex like /this/g rather than new RegExp('this', 'g');
it's ok for you to assemble the regex in an extra step rather than having it in one piece from the start;
Then you may like to write this way:
var regexParts =
[
/\b(\d+|null)\b/,// Some comments.
/\b(true|false)\b/,
/\b(new|getElementsBy(?:Tag|Class|)Name|arguments|getElementById|if|else|do|null|return|case|default|function|typeof|undefined|instanceof|this|document|window|while|for|switch|in|break|continue|length|var|(?:clear|set)(?:Timeout|Interval))(?=\W)/,
/(\$|jQuery)/,
/many more patterns/
],
regexString = regexParts.map(function(x){return x.source}).join('|'),
regexPattern = new RegExp(regexString, 'g');
you can then do something like:
string.replace(regexPattern, function()
{
var m = arguments,
Class = '';
switch(true)
{
// Numbers and 'null'.
case (Boolean)(m[1]):
m = m[1];
Class = 'number';
break;
// True or False.
case (Boolean)(m[2]):
m = m[2];
Class = 'bool';
break;
// True or False.
case (Boolean)(m[3]):
m = m[3];
Class = 'keyword';
break;
// $ or 'jQuery'.
case (Boolean)(m[4]):
m = m[4];
Class = 'dollar';
break;
// More cases...
}
return '<span class="' + Class + '">' + m + '</span>';
})
In my particular case (a code-mirror-like editor), it is much easier to perform one big regex, rather than a lot of replaces like following as each time I replace with a html tag to wrap an expression, the next pattern will be harder to target without affecting the html tag itself (and without the good lookbehind that is unfortunately not supported in javascript):
.replace(/(\b\d+|null\b)/g, '<span class="number">$1</span>')
.replace(/(\btrue|false\b)/g, '<span class="bool">$1</span>')
.replace(/\b(new|getElementsBy(?:Tag|Class|)Name|arguments|getElementById|if|else|do|null|return|case|default|function|typeof|undefined|instanceof|this|document|window|while|for|switch|in|break|continue|var|(?:clear|set)(?:Timeout|Interval))(?=\W)/g, '<span class="keyword">$1</span>')
.replace(/\$/g, '<span class="dollar">$</span>')
.replace(/([\[\](){}.:;,+\-?=])/g, '<span class="ponctuation">$1</span>')

It would be preferable to use the literal syntax as often as possible. It's shorter, more legible, and you do not need escape quotes or double-escape backlashes. From "Javascript Patterns", Stoyan Stefanov 2010.
But using New may be the only way to concatenate.
I would avoid eval. Its not safe.

You could do something like:
function concatRegex(...segments) {
return new RegExp(segments.join(''));
}
The segments would be strings (rather than regex literals) passed in as separate arguments.

You can concat regex source from both the literal and RegExp class:
var xxx = new RegExp(/abcd/);
var zzz = new RegExp(xxx.source + /efgh/.source);

Use the constructor with 2 params and avoid the problem with trailing '/':
var re_final = new RegExp("\\" + ".", "g"); // constructor can have 2 params!
console.log("...finally".replace(re_final, "!") + "\n" + re_final +
" works as expected..."); // !!!finally works as expected
// meanwhile
re_final = new RegExp("\\" + "." + "g"); // appends final '/'
console.log("... finally".replace(re_final, "!")); // ...finally
console.log(re_final, "does not work!"); // does not work

No, the literal way is not supported. You'll have to use RegExp.

the easier way to me would be concatenate the sources, ex.:
a = /\d+/
b = /\w+/
c = new RegExp(a.source + b.source)
the c value will result in:
/\d+\w+/

I prefer to use eval('your expression') because it does not add the /on each end/ that ='new RegExp' does.