I am pretty new to Regex and what I want to do is the following.
Say I have a keyword array:
// the kwd is changed dynamically
var kwd = ["key1", "key2", "key3", "key4"];
I need to build a Regex to test if a string contains any of the keywords in that array. I wonder how can I generate that Regex expression dynamically?
Probably a function:
function RegexBuilder(kwd){
// I know I can use brutal force to search one by one,
// but I just need to know how to generate that regex?
return regex_expression;
}
This should do it. The constructor for the RegExp object can be used to build a RegExp from a string instead of a literal.
function RegexBuilder(kwd){
kwd.forEach(function(e,i,a){
a[i] = e.replace(/[()^|$[\]*.\\?{}]/g, "\\$&");
});
regex_expression = new RegExp(kwd.join('|'));
return regex_expression;
}
https://regex101.com/r/vE0cI0/1
I assume there shouldn't be any special chars inside key which will make this a more complex solution.
function RegexBuilder(kwd){
var regex_expression = '(' + kwd.join('|').replace(/([^\w\d\s|])/gm,'\\$1') + ')';
return regex_expression;
}
You can use it this way
var regex = new RegExp(RegexBuilder(kwd));
if(mytext.match(regex)) // do something
Related
This question already has answers here:
How do you use a variable in a regular expression?
(27 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
So for example:
function(input){
var testVar = input;
string = ...
string.replace(/ReGeX + testVar + ReGeX/, "replacement")
}
But this is of course not working :)
Is there any way to do this?
const regex = new RegExp(`ReGeX${testVar}ReGeX`);
...
string.replace(regex, "replacement");
Update
Per some of the comments, it's important to note that you may want to escape the variable if there is potential for malicious content (e.g. the variable comes from user input)
ES6 Update
In 2019, this would usually be written using a template string, and the above code has been updated. The original answer was:
var regex = new RegExp("ReGeX" + testVar + "ReGeX");
...
string.replace(regex, "replacement");
You can use the RegExp object:
var regexstring = "whatever";
var regexp = new RegExp(regexstring, "gi");
var str = "whateverTest";
var str2 = str.replace(regexp, "other");
document.write(str2);
Then you can construct regexstring in any way you want.
You can read more about it here.
To build a regular expression from a variable in JavaScript, you'll need to use the RegExp constructor with a string parameter.
function reg(input) {
var flags;
//could be any combination of 'g', 'i', and 'm'
flags = 'g';
return new RegExp('ReGeX' + input + 'ReGeX', flags);
}
of course, this is a very naive example. It assumes that input is has been properly escaped for a regular expression. If you're dealing with user-input, or simply want to make it more convenient to match special characters, you'll need to escape special characters:
function regexEscape(str) {
return str.replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&')
}
function reg(input) {
var flags;
//could be any combination of 'g', 'i', and 'm'
flags = 'g';
input = regexEscape(input);
return new RegExp('ReGeX' + input + 'ReGeX', flags);
}
You can create regular expressions in JS in one of two ways:
Using regular expression literal - /ab{2}/g
Using the regular expression constructor - new RegExp("ab{2}", "g") .
Regular expression literals are constant, and can not be used with variables. This could be achieved using the constructor. The stracture of the RegEx constructor is
new RegExp(regularExpressionString, modifiersString)
You can embed variables as part of the regularExpressionString. For example,
var pattern="cd"
var repeats=3
new RegExp(`${pattern}{${repeats}}`, "g")
This will match any appearance of the pattern cdcdcd.
if you're using es6 template literals are an option...
string.replace(new RegExp(`ReGeX${testVar}ReGeX`), "replacement")
You can always give regular expression as string, i.e. "ReGeX" + testVar + "ReGeX". You'll possibly have to escape some characters inside your string (e.g., double quote), but for most cases it's equivalent.
You can also use RegExp constructor to pass flags in (see the docs).
It's only necessary to prepare the string variable first and then convert it to the RegEx.
for example:
You want to add minLength and MaxLength with the variable to RegEx:
function getRegEx() {
const minLength = "5"; // for exapmle: min is 5
const maxLength = "12"; // for exapmle: man is 12
var regEx = "^.{" + minLength + ","+ maxLength +"}$"; // first we make a String variable of our RegEx
regEx = new RegExp(regEx, "g"); // now we convert it to RegEx
return regEx; // In the end, we return the RegEx
}
now if you change value of MaxLength or MinLength, It will change in all RegExs.
Hope to be useful. Also sorry about my English.
Here's an pretty useless function that return values wrapped by specific characters. :)
jsfiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/squadjot/43agwo6x/
function getValsWrappedIn(str,c1,c2){
var rg = new RegExp("(?<=\\"+c1+")(.*?)(?=\\"+c2+")","g");
return str.match(rg);
}
var exampleStr = "Something (5) or some time (19) or maybe a (thingy)";
var results = getValsWrappedIn(exampleStr,"(",")")
// Will return array ["5","19","thingy"]
console.log(results)
accepted answer doesn't work for me and doesn't follow MDN examples
see the 'Description' section in above link
I'd go with the following it's working for me:
let stringThatIsGoingToChange = 'findMe';
let flagsYouWant = 'gi' //simple string with flags
let dynamicRegExp = new RegExp(`${stringThatIsGoingToChange}`, flagsYouWant)
// that makes dynamicRegExp = /findMe/gi
i'm trying to use a variable (save) as a regex character set but keep getting null
function mutation(arr) {
var save = arr[1];
var rgx = /[save]/gi;
return arr[0].match(rgx).join('') == arr[0];
}
mutation(["Mary", "Army"]);
Goal of the function is to see if all the letters of arr[1] are contained in arr[0] by returning true or false. Function does work as i want it to when i manually put arr[1] into the character set (returns true in this situation), just cant get it to work with the variable.
Your exact current approach won't work (I think) due to it not being possible to build a regex pattern using /.../ notation with a variable. But, we can still use RegExp to build the pattern. For the sample data you showed us, here is a regex pattern which would work:
^(?!.*[^Mary]).*$`
In other words, we can assert, on the second string Army, that all its characters can be found in the first string Mary.
function mutation(arr) {
var save = arr[1];
var rgx = "^(?!.*[^" + save + "]).*$";
var re = new RegExp(rgx, "gi");
return re.test(arr[0]);
}
console.log(mutation(["Mary", "Army"]));
console.log(mutation(["Jon Skeet", "Tim Biegeleisen"]));
I know that I can create a javascript replace like this:
str = str.replace(/mytarget/g, 'some value');
that will replace all the occurrences of the literal mytarget.
However, I have a big array of words/phrases that I want to use in regex replace, and as regexps are just language elements (they are not wrapped in a string when declaring), I can't find a way to declare regexps programmatically unless I hard-code them. So if I have:
var arr=['word', 'another', 'hello'];
I want to produce:
str = str.replace(/word/g, 'some value');
str = str.replace(/another/g, 'some value');
str = str.replace(/hello/g, 'some value');
Please post an example that I can use regexps, as I'll be adding more expressions into the regexps such as whitespace etc. so I NEED it the regexp way. Finally, please don't offer using eval, I'm sure there is a better way.
You need to invoke the RegExp constructor function for that. Example:
['word', 'another', 'hello'].forEach(function( word ) {
var myExp = new RegExp(word, 'g');
str = str.replace(myExp, 'some value');
});
The first argument for the constructor is a string, which literally takes anything you would wrap inbetween //. The second paramter is also string, where you can pass modifiers like g, i, etc.
You can build a RegEx dynamically like this -
var word = 'hello';
var re = new RegExp("\\b" + word + "\\b","g");
Remember that you'll need to escape any \ characters using \\
for( i in arr )
{
str = str.replace(new RegExp("\\"+arr[i],"g"), "some value")
}
If you are generating the reg-exp on the fly, you can use the RegExp object
var a = new RegExp("word")
I have ref=Apple
and my current regex is
var regex = /ref=(.+)/;
var ref = regex.exec(window.location.href);
alert(ref[0]);
but that includes the ref=
now, I also want to stop capturing characters if a & is at the end of the ref param. cause ref may not always be the last param in the url.
You'll want to split the url parameters, rather than using a regular expression.
Something like:
var get = window.location.href.split('?')[1];
var params = get.split('&');
for (p in params) {
var key = params[p].split('=')[0];
var value = params[p].split('=')[1];
if (key == 'ref') {
alert('ref is ' + value);
}
}
Use ref[1] instead.
This accesses what is captured by group 1 in your pattern.
Note that there's almost certainly a better way to do key/value parsing in Javascript than regex.
References
regular-expressions.info/Brackets for Capturing
You are using the ref wrong, you should use ref[1] for the (.+), ref[0] is the whole match.
If & is at the end, modify the regexp to /ref=([^&]+)/, to exclude &s.
Also, make sure you urldecode (unescape in JavaScript) the match.
Capture only word characters and numbers:
var regex = /ref=(\w+)/;
var ref = regex.exec(window.location.href);
alert(ref[1]);
Capture word characters, numbers, - and _:
var regex = /ref=([\w_\-]+)/;
var ref = regex.exec(window.location.href);
alert(ref[1]);
More information about Regular Expressions (the basics)
try this regex pattern ref=(.*?)&
This pattern will match anything after ref= and stop before '&'
To get the value of m just use following code:
var regex = /ref=(.*?)&/;
var ref = regex.exec(window.location.href);
alert(ref[1]);
This question already has answers here:
How do you use a variable in a regular expression?
(27 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
So for example:
function(input){
var testVar = input;
string = ...
string.replace(/ReGeX + testVar + ReGeX/, "replacement")
}
But this is of course not working :)
Is there any way to do this?
const regex = new RegExp(`ReGeX${testVar}ReGeX`);
...
string.replace(regex, "replacement");
Update
Per some of the comments, it's important to note that you may want to escape the variable if there is potential for malicious content (e.g. the variable comes from user input)
ES6 Update
In 2019, this would usually be written using a template string, and the above code has been updated. The original answer was:
var regex = new RegExp("ReGeX" + testVar + "ReGeX");
...
string.replace(regex, "replacement");
You can use the RegExp object:
var regexstring = "whatever";
var regexp = new RegExp(regexstring, "gi");
var str = "whateverTest";
var str2 = str.replace(regexp, "other");
document.write(str2);
Then you can construct regexstring in any way you want.
You can read more about it here.
To build a regular expression from a variable in JavaScript, you'll need to use the RegExp constructor with a string parameter.
function reg(input) {
var flags;
//could be any combination of 'g', 'i', and 'm'
flags = 'g';
return new RegExp('ReGeX' + input + 'ReGeX', flags);
}
of course, this is a very naive example. It assumes that input is has been properly escaped for a regular expression. If you're dealing with user-input, or simply want to make it more convenient to match special characters, you'll need to escape special characters:
function regexEscape(str) {
return str.replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&')
}
function reg(input) {
var flags;
//could be any combination of 'g', 'i', and 'm'
flags = 'g';
input = regexEscape(input);
return new RegExp('ReGeX' + input + 'ReGeX', flags);
}
You can create regular expressions in JS in one of two ways:
Using regular expression literal - /ab{2}/g
Using the regular expression constructor - new RegExp("ab{2}", "g") .
Regular expression literals are constant, and can not be used with variables. This could be achieved using the constructor. The stracture of the RegEx constructor is
new RegExp(regularExpressionString, modifiersString)
You can embed variables as part of the regularExpressionString. For example,
var pattern="cd"
var repeats=3
new RegExp(`${pattern}{${repeats}}`, "g")
This will match any appearance of the pattern cdcdcd.
if you're using es6 template literals are an option...
string.replace(new RegExp(`ReGeX${testVar}ReGeX`), "replacement")
You can always give regular expression as string, i.e. "ReGeX" + testVar + "ReGeX". You'll possibly have to escape some characters inside your string (e.g., double quote), but for most cases it's equivalent.
You can also use RegExp constructor to pass flags in (see the docs).
It's only necessary to prepare the string variable first and then convert it to the RegEx.
for example:
You want to add minLength and MaxLength with the variable to RegEx:
function getRegEx() {
const minLength = "5"; // for exapmle: min is 5
const maxLength = "12"; // for exapmle: man is 12
var regEx = "^.{" + minLength + ","+ maxLength +"}$"; // first we make a String variable of our RegEx
regEx = new RegExp(regEx, "g"); // now we convert it to RegEx
return regEx; // In the end, we return the RegEx
}
now if you change value of MaxLength or MinLength, It will change in all RegExs.
Hope to be useful. Also sorry about my English.
Here's an pretty useless function that return values wrapped by specific characters. :)
jsfiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/squadjot/43agwo6x/
function getValsWrappedIn(str,c1,c2){
var rg = new RegExp("(?<=\\"+c1+")(.*?)(?=\\"+c2+")","g");
return str.match(rg);
}
var exampleStr = "Something (5) or some time (19) or maybe a (thingy)";
var results = getValsWrappedIn(exampleStr,"(",")")
// Will return array ["5","19","thingy"]
console.log(results)
accepted answer doesn't work for me and doesn't follow MDN examples
see the 'Description' section in above link
I'd go with the following it's working for me:
let stringThatIsGoingToChange = 'findMe';
let flagsYouWant = 'gi' //simple string with flags
let dynamicRegExp = new RegExp(`${stringThatIsGoingToChange}`, flagsYouWant)
// that makes dynamicRegExp = /findMe/gi