Develop Reference

How to search strings with brackets using Regular expressions

I have a case wherein I want to search for all Hello (World) in an array. Hello (World) is coming from a variable and can change. I want to achieve this using RegExp and not indexOf or includes methods.
testArray = ['Hello (World', 'Hello (World)', 'hello (worlD)']
My match should return index 1 & 2 as answers.

Use the RegExp constructor after escaping the string (algorithm from this answer), and use some array methods:
const testArray = ['Hello (World', 'Hello (World)', 'hello (worlD)'];
const string = "Hello (World)".replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&');
const regex = new RegExp(string, "i");
const indexes = testArray.map((e, i) => e.match(regex) == null ? null : i).filter(e => e != null);
console.log(indexes);

This expression might help you to do so:
(\w+)\s\((\w+)
You may not need to bound it from left and right, since your input strings are well structured. You might just focus on your desired capturing groups, which I have assumed, each one is a single word, which you can simply modify that.
With a simple string replace you can match and capture both of them.
RegEx Descriptive Graph
This graph shows how the expression would work and you can visualize other expressions in this link:
Performance Test
This JavaScript snippet shows the performance of that expression using a simple 1-million times for loop.
repeat = 1000000;
start = Date.now();
for (var i = repeat; i >= 0; i--) {
var string = "Hello (World";
var regex = /(\w+)\s\((\w+)/g;
var match = string.replace(regex, "$1 & $2");
}
end = Date.now() - start;
console.log("YAAAY! \"" + match + "\" is a match 💚💚💚 ");
console.log(end / 1000 + " is the runtime of " + repeat + " times benchmark test. 😳 ");

testArray = ['Hello (World', 'Hello (World)', 'hello (worlD)'];
let indexes = [];
testArray.map((word,i)=>{
if(word.match(/\(.*\)/)){
indexes.push(i);
}
});
console.log(indexes);

How to put a variable in my JS regular expression? [duplicate]

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

How to replace numbers with an empty char

i need to replace phone number in string on \n new line.
My string: Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com,380967574366
I tried this:
var str = 'Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com,380967574366'
var regex = /[0-9]/g;
var rec = str.trim().replace(regex, '\n').split(','); //Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com,
Number replace on \n but after using e-mail extra comma is in the string need to remove it.
Finally my string should look like this:
Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com\n

You can try this:
var str = 'Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com,380967574366';
var regex = /,[0-9]+/g;
str.replace(regex, '\n');
The snippet above may output what you want, i.e. Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com\n

There's a lot of ways to that, and this is so easy, so try this simple answer:-
var str = 'Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com,380967574366';
var splitted = str.split(","); //split them by comma
splitted.pop(); //removes the last element
var rec = splitted.join() + '\n'; //join them

You need a regex to select the complete phone number and also the preceding comma. Your current regex selects each digit and replaces each one with an "\n", resulting in a lot of "\n" in the result. Also the regex does not match the comma.
Use the following regex:
var str = 'Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com,380967574366'
var regex = /,[0-9]+$/;
// it replaces all consecutive digits with the condition at least one digit exists (the "[0-9]+" part)
// placed at the end of the string (the "$" part)
// and also the digits must be preceded by a comma (the "," part in the beginning);
// also no need for global flag (/g) because of the $ symbol (the end of the string) which can be matched only once
var rec = str.trim().replace(regex, '\n'); //the result will be this string: Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com\n

var str = "Jhony Jhons,jhon#gmail.com,380967574366";
var result = str.replace(/,\d+/g,'\\n');
console.log(result)

Regex match cookie value and remove hyphens

I'm trying to extract out a group of words from a larger string/cookie that are separated by hyphens. I would like to replace the hyphens with a space and set to a variable. Javascript or jQuery.
As an example, the larger string has a name and value like this within it:
facility=34222%7CConner-Department-Store;
(notice the leading "C")
So first, I need to match()/find facility=34222%7CConner-Department-Store; with regex. Then break it down to "Conner Department Store"
var cookie = document.cookie;
var facilityValue = cookie.match( REGEX ); ??

var test = "store=874635%7Csomethingelse;facility=34222%7CConner-Department-Store;store=874635%7Csomethingelse;";
var test2 = test.replace(/^(.*)facility=([^;]+)(.*)$/, function(matchedString, match1, match2, match3){
return decodeURIComponent(match2);
});
console.log( test2 );
console.log( test2.split('|')[1].replace(/[-]/g, ' ') );

If I understood it correctly, you want to make a phrase by getting all the words between hyphens and disallowing two successive Uppercase letters in a word, so I'd prefer using Regex in that case.
This is a Regex solution, that works dynamically with any cookies in the same format and extract the wanted sentence from it:
var matches = str.match(/([A-Z][a-z]+)-?/g);
console.log(matches.map(function(m) {
return m.replace('-', '');
}).join(" "));
Demo:
var str = "facility=34222%7CConner-Department-Store;";
var matches = str.match(/([A-Z][a-z]+)-?/g);
console.log(matches.map(function(m) {
return m.replace('-', '');
}).join(" "));
Explanation:
Use this Regex (/([A-Z][a-z]+)-?/g to match the words between -.
Replace any - occurence in the matched words.
Then just join these matches array with white space.

Ok,
first, you should decode this string as follows:
var str = "facility=34222%7CConner-Department-Store;"
var decoded = decodeURIComponent(str);
// decoded = "facility=34222|Conner-Department-Store;"
Then you have multiple possibilities to split up this string.
The easiest way is to use substring()
var solution1 = decoded.substring(decoded.indexOf('|') + 1, decoded.length)
// solution1 = "Conner-Department-Store;"
solution1 = solution1.replace('-', ' ');
// solution1 = "Conner Department Store;"
As you can see, substring(arg1, arg2) returns the string, starting at index arg1 and ending at index arg2. See Full Documentation here
If you want to cut the last ; just set decoded.length - 1 as arg2 in the snippet above.
decoded.substring(decoded.indexOf('|') + 1, decoded.length - 1)
//returns "Conner-Department-Store"
or all above in just one line:
decoded.substring(decoded.indexOf('|') + 1, decoded.length - 1).replace('-', ' ')
If you want still to use a regular Expression to retrieve (perhaps more) data out of the string, you could use something similar to this snippet:
var solution2 = "";
var regEx= /([A-Za-z]*)=([0-9]*)\|(\S[^:\/?#\[\]\#\;\,']*)/;
if (regEx.test(decoded)) {
solution2 = decoded.match(regEx);
/* returns
[0:"facility=34222|Conner-Department-Store",
1:"facility",
2:"34222",
3:"Conner-Department-Store",
index:0,
input:"facility=34222|Conner-Department-Store;"
length:4] */
solution2 = solution2[3].replace('-', ' ');
// "Conner Department Store"
}
I have applied some rules for the regex to work, feel free to modify them according your needs.
facility can be any Word built with alphabetical characters lower and uppercase (no other chars) at any length
= needs to be the char =
34222 can be any number but no other characters
| needs to be the char |
Conner-Department-Store can be any characters except one of the following (reserved delimiters): :/?#[]#;,'
Hope this helps :)
edit: to find only the part
facility=34222%7CConner-Department-Store; just modify the regex to
match facility= instead of ([A-z]*)=:
/(facility)=([0-9]*)\|(\S[^:\/?#\[\]\#\;\,']*)/

You can use cookies.js, a mini framework from MDN (Mozilla Developer Network).
Simply include the cookies.js file in your application, and write:
docCookies.getItem("Connor Department Store");

JavaScript - string regex backreferences

You can backreference like this in JavaScript:
var str = "123 $test 123";
str = str.replace(/(\$)([a-z]+)/gi, "$2");
This would (quite silly) replace "$test" with "test". But imagine I'd like to pass the resulting string of $2 into a function, which returns another value. I tried doing this, but instead of getting the string "test", I get "$2". Is there a way to achieve this?
// Instead of getting "$2" passed into somefunc, I want "test"
// (i.e. the result of the regex)
str = str.replace(/(\$)([a-z]+)/gi, somefunc("$2"));

Like this:
str.replace(regex, function(match, $1, $2, offset, original) { return someFunc($2); })

Pass a function as the second argument to replace:
str = str.replace(/(\$)([a-z]+)/gi, myReplace);
function myReplace(str, group1, group2) {
return "+" + group2 + "+";
}
This capability has been around since Javascript 1.3, according to mozilla.org.

Using ESNext, quite a dummy links replacer but just to show-case how it works :
let text = 'Visit http://lovecats.com/new-posts/ and https://lovedogs.com/best-dogs NOW !';
text = text.replace(/(https?:\/\/[^ ]+)/g, (match, link) => {
// remove ending slash if there is one
link = link.replace(/\/?$/, '');
return `${link.substr(link.lastIndexOf('/') +1)}`;
});
document.body.innerHTML = text;

Note: Previous answer was missing some code. It's now fixed + example.
I needed something a bit more flexible for a regex replace to decode the unicode in my incoming JSON data:
var text = "some string with an encoded 's' in it";
text.replace(/&#(\d+);/g, function() {
return String.fromCharCode(arguments[1]);
});
// "some string with an encoded 's' in it"

If you would have a variable amount of backreferences then the argument count (and places) are also variable. The MDN Web Docs describe the follwing syntax for sepcifing a function as replacement argument:
function replacer(match[, p1[, p2[, p...]]], offset, string)
For instance, take these regular expressions:
var searches = [
'test([1-3]){1,3}', // 1 backreference
'([Ss]ome) ([A-z]+) chars', // 2 backreferences
'([Mm][a#]ny) ([Mm][0o]r[3e]) ([Ww][0o]rd[5s])' // 3 backreferences
];
for (var i in searches) {
"Some string chars and many m0re w0rds in this test123".replace(
new RegExp(
searches[i]
function(...args) {
var match = args[0];
var backrefs = args.slice(1, args.length - 2);
// will be: ['Some', 'string'], ['many', 'm0re', 'w0rds'], ['123']
var offset = args[args.length - 2];
var string = args[args.length - 1];
}
)
);
}
You can't use 'arguments' variable here because it's of type Arguments and no of type Array so it doesn't have a slice() method.