Develop Reference

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)

javascript regex Numbers and letters only

This should automatically remove characters NOT on my regex, but if I put in the string asdf sd %$##$, it doesnt remove anything, and if I put in this #sdf%#, it only removes the first character. I'm trying to make it remove any and all instances of those symbols/special characters (anything not on my regex), but its not working all the time. Thanks for any help:
function ohno(){
var pattern = new RegExp("[^a-zA-Z0-9]+");
var str = "#sdf%#"; //"asdf sd %$##$" // Try both
str = str.replace(pattern,' ');
document.getElementById('msg').innerHTML = str;
}

You need the g flag to remove more than one match:
var pattern = new RegExp("[^a-zA-Z0-9]+", "g");
Note that it would be more efficient and readable to use a regex literal instead of the RegExp constructor:
var pattern = /[^a-zA-Z0-9]+/g;
reference

You need to set global using "g", The flag indicates that the regular expression should be tested against all possible matches in a string.
new RegExp("[^a-zA-Z0-9]+", "g")
Reference
var pattern = new RegExp("[^a-zA-Z0-9]+", "g");
var str = "#sdf%#"; //"asdf sd %$##$" // Try both
str = str.replace(pattern,' ');
alert(str)

Javascript Regex replace by group

Suppose you have this string: url?param1=something&param2=something&param3=something which can also be only url?param1=something.
How would you do to convert param1=something to param1=anotherthing ?
I am able to do it this way:
var regex = /param1=.*(&|$)/;
var string = 'url?param1=something&param2=something&param3=something';
var newValue = 'anotherthing';
string.replace(regex, 'param1='+newValue);
However, I do not like the fact of repeating all the search term, so I'm asking if it is possible to group the needed pattern to replace, in this case would be .* and replace only that.
For example, saying that $1 belongs to group 1. This is fictitious.
var regex = /param1=(.*)(&|$)/;
var string = 'url?param1=something&param2=something&param3=something';
var newValue = 'anotherthing';
string.replace(regex, $1, newValue);

Try this:
var string = 'url?param1=something&param2=something&param3=something';
alert(string.replace(/(param1)([^&]+)/, '$1=newparam1'));
if you want to set multiple parameters to the same value
alert(string.replace(/(param1|param2)([^&]+)/g, '$1=newparam'));

Add another capture group...
var regex = /(param1=)([^&]*)/;
var string = 'url?param1=something&param2=something&param3=something';
var newValue = 'anotherthing';
string.replace(regex, "$1" + newValue);

Convert a string variable to regular expression in java script?

so I am trying to search a string for a sub string, and apparently, I must use regular expressions with the .search function, this is the code I have
var str = items[i].toLowerCase;
var str2 = document.getElementById("input").value.toLowerCase;
var index = str.search(str2);
Obhiously this doesn't work and I get an error, saying str.search is not a function, how would I go about changing these two strings into regular expressions?
thanks

Use this:
new RegExp("your regex here", "modifiers");
Take a look into:
Using a string variable as regular expression

add braces to your function calls:
var str = items[i].toLowerCase();
var str2 = document.getElementById("input").value.toLowerCase();
var index = str.search(str2);
otherwise type of "str" is a function, not result of function execution

your problem is forgetting a set of brackets () -- and as such str and str2 get assigned a function rather than the result of calling that function! Simply change the code:
var str = items[i].toLowerCase();
var str2 = document.getElementById("input").value.toLowerCase();
var index = str.search(str2);

To use an expression in a RegExp constructor:
var re = new RegExp(str, 'g');
will create a regular expression to match the value of str in a string, so:
var str = 'foo';
var re = new RegExp(str, 'i');
is equivalent to the RegExp literal:
var re = /foo/i;
You can use any expression that evaluates to a valid regular expression, so to match foo at the start of a string:
var re = new RegExp('^' + str, 'i');
The only niggle is that quoted characters must be double quoted, so to match whitespace at the end of a string:
var re = new RegExp('\\s+$');
which is equivalent to:
var re = /\s+$/;