Develop Reference

Using JS to modify user input for REGEXP search

I'm taking user input from a searchbar and modifying it to a regexp. From there I can search a json file for valid values and return them. It works fine with input without quotes, but with them, I'm appending "\Q" and "\E" so I can find the entirety of the string (with spaces and other special characters).
if (searchField.includes('"')){
var tempexpress = searchField.substring(1,searchField.length-1);
var tempexpress = "\\Q" + tempexpress + "\\E";
var expression = new RegExp(tempexpress);
} else {
var tempexpress = searchField.replace('(',"\\(");
var tempexpress = tempexpress.replace(')',"\\)");
var tempexpress = tempexpress.replace(/'/g,"\\'");
var tempexpress = tempexpress.replace('*',"\.");
var expression = new RegExp(tempexpress, "i");
};
if (value.data.label.search(expression) != -1){
console.log('found it');
}
If I input "QTT6" into the search field (with quotes for a literal), then it creates the following regexp: /\QQTT6\E/
In my testing, I found that it doesn't match to QTT6 for some reason and I'm not sure why. Any help is appreciated.
Also I'm very new to JS and Jquery, so sorry if my code isn't very well put together.

Per Kelly's comment:
In JS you need to use ^ and $ instead of \Q and \E.
For more information, see the MDN docs on Regex Assertions:
^:
Matches the beginning of input. If the multiline flag is set to true, also matches immediately after a line break character. For example, /^A/ does not match the "A" in "an A", but does match the first "A" in "An A".
Note: This character has a different meaning when it appears at the start of a character class.
$:
Matches the end of input. If the multiline flag is set to true, also matches immediately before a line break character. For example, /t$/ does not match the "t" in "eater", but does match it in "eat".

How to allow only certain words consecutively with Regex in javascript

I'm trying to write a regex that will return true if it matches the format below, otherwise, it should return false. It should only allow words as below:
Positive match (return true)
UA-1234-1,UA-12345-2,UA-34578-2
Negative match (return false or null)
Note: A is missing after U
UA-1234-1,U-12345-2
It should always give me true when the string passed to regex is
UA-1234-1,UA-12345-2,UA-34578-2,...........
Below is what I am trying to do but it is matching only the first element and not returning null.
var pattern=/^UA-[0-9]+(-[0-9]+)?/g;
pattern.match("UA-1234-1,UA-12345-2,UA-34578-2");
pattern.exec("UA-1234-1,UA-12345-2,UA-34578-2)
Thanks in advance. Help is greatly appreciated.

The pattern you need is a pattern enclosed with anchors (^ - start of string and $ - end of string) that matches your pattern at first (the initial "block") and then matches 0 or more occurrences of a , followed with the block pattern.
It looks like /^BLOCK(?:,BLOCK)*$/. You may introduce optional whitespaces in between, e.g. /^BLOCK(?:,\s*BLOCK)*$/.
In the end, the pattern looks like ^UA-[0-9]+(?:-[0-9]+)?(?:,UA-[0-9]+(?:-[0-9]+)?)*$. It is best to build it dynamically to keep it readable and easy to maintain:
const block = "UA-[0-9]+(?:-[0-9]+)?";
let rx = new RegExp(`^${block}(?:,${block})*$`); // RegExp("^" + block + "(?:," + block + ")*$") // for non-ES6
let tests = ['UA-1234-1,UA-12345-2,UA-34578-2', 'UA-1234-1,U-12345-2'];
for (var s of tests) {
console.log(s, "=>", rx.test(s));
}

split the string by commas, and test each element instead.

Split a string based on a condition

I would like to split a spreadsheet cell reference (eg, A10, AB100, ABC5) to two string parts: column reference and row reference.
A10 => A and 10
AB100 => AB and 100 ...
Does anyone know how to do this by string functions?

var res = "AA123";
//Method 1
var arr = res.match(/[a-z]+|[^a-z]+/gi);
document.write(arr[0] + "<br>" + arr[1]);
//Method 2 (as deceze suggested)
var arr = res.match(/([^\d]+)(\d+)/);
document.write("<br>" + arr[1] + "<br>" + arr[2]);
//Note here [^\d] is the same as \D

This is easiest to do with a regular expression (regex). For example:
var ref = "AA100";
var matches = ref.match(/^([a-zA-Z]+)([1-9][0-9]*)$/);
if (matches) {
var column = matches[1];
var row = Number(matches[2]);
console.log(column); // "AA"
console.log(row); // 100
} else {
throw new Error('invalid ref "' + ref + '"');
}
The important part here is the regex literal, /^([a-zA-Z]+)([1-9][0-9]*)$/. I'll walk you through it.
^ anchors the regex to the start of the string. Otherwise you might match something like "123ABC456".
[a-zA-Z]+ matches one or more character from a-z or A-Z.
[1-9][0-9]* matches exactly one character from 1-9, and then zero or more characters from 0-9. This makes sure that the number you are matching never starts with zero (i.e. "A001" is not allowed).
$ anchors the regex to the end of the string, so that you don't match something like "ABC123DEF".
The parentheses around ([a-zA-Z]+) and ([1-9][0-9]*) "capture" the strings inside them, so that we can later find them using matches[1] and matches[2].
This example is strict about only matching valid cell references. If you trust the data you receive to always be valid then you can get away with a less strict regex, but it is good practice to always validate your data anyway in case your data source changes or you use the code somewhere else.
It is also up to you to decide what you want to do if you receive invalid data. In this example I make the script throw an error, but there might be better choices in your situation (e.g. prompt the user to enter another value).

Regexp to capture comma separated values

I have a string that can be a comma separated list of \w, such as:
abc123
abc123,def456,ghi789
I am trying to find a JavaScript regexp that will return ['abc123'] (first case) or ['abc123', 'def456', 'ghi789'] (without the comma).
I tried:
^(\w+,?)+$ -- Nope, as only the last repeating pattern will be matched, 789
^(?:(\w+),?)+$ -- Same story. I am using non-capturing bracket. However, the capturing just doesn't seem to happen for the repeated word
Is what I am trying to do even possible with regexp? I tried pretty much every combination of grouping, using capturing and non-capturing brackets, and still not managed to get this happening...

If you want to discard the whole input when there is something wrong, the simplest way is to validate, then split:
if (/^\w+(,\w+)*$/.test(input)) {
var values = input.split(',');
// Process the values here
}
If you want to allow empty value, change \w+ to \w*.
Trying to match and validate at the same time with single regex requires emulation of \G feature, which assert the position of the last match. Why is \G required? Since it prevents the engine from retrying the match at the next position and bypass your validation. Remember than ECMA Script regex doesn't have look-behind, so you can't differentiate between the position of an invalid character and the character(s) after it:
something,=bad,orisit,cor&rupt
^^ ^^
When you can't differentiate between the 2 positions, you can't rely on the engine to do a match-all operation alone. While it is possible to use a while loop with RegExp.exec and assert the position of last match yourself, why would you do so when there is a cleaner option?
If you want to savage whatever available, torazaburo's answer is a viable option.

Live demo
Try this regex :
'/([^,]+)/'
Alternatively, strings in javascript have a split method that can split a string based on a delimeter:
s.split(',')

Split on the comma first, then filter out results that do not match:
str.split(',').filter(function(s) { return /^\w+$/.test(s); })

This regex pattern separates numerical value in new line which contains special character such as .,,,# and so on.
var val = [1234,1213.1212, 1.3, 1.4]
var re = /[0-9]*[0-9]/gi;

var str = "abc123,def456, asda12, 1a2ass, yy8,ghi789";
var re = /[a-z]{3}\d{3}/g;
var list = str.match(re);
document.write("<BR> list.length: " + list.length);
for(var i=0; i < list.length; i++) {
document.write("<BR>list(" + i + "): " + list[i]);
}
This will get only "abc123" code style in the list and nothing else.

May be you can use split function
var st = "abc123,def456,ghi789";
var res = st.split(',');

Regex is confusing me and why won't it parse properly?

Sorry about the confusing title. I'm new to Regex and JS/JQ in general. However, I'm trying to parse this. Basically, I want it to add the key pressed to the HTML if and ONLY if the keys 0-9 and the keys +, -, /, and * are pressed. Any help would be much appreciated. Here is my code:
function charCode(code) {
return String.fromCharCode(code);
}
function escapeChars(esc) {
return esc.replace(/[0-9\+-\*\/]*$/, "");
}
$('#tb').html("0");
$(document).on("keydown", function(event) {
var div = $('#tb');
var which = event.which;
which = charCode(which);
which = escapeChars(which);
else if (div.html() == "0") {
//alert("Div is equal to 0."); --Debug
div.html(which);
} else {
//alert("Div is equal to " + div.html()); --Debug
div.html(div.html() + which);
}
});
Currently, it doesn't allow anything through.

There's a couple problems with your regular expression.
You want to replace characters that do not match your list. To do that, you start your character class ([]) with a ^.
You don't need to escape + or * in the regular expression. You do need to move the - to the beginning or end though.
You don't need the * or the $ after the character class. Dropping those, you'll replace any character that doesn't match, no matter where it occurs in the string.
In case your string contains more than one character (may not apply here), adding a g flag to the end will allow you to replace all characters that do not match.
That results in a regular expression that looks like this:
/[^0-9+*\/-]/g
This fiddle shows the above regular expression working: http://jsfiddle.net/WyttT/
Updated
Another problem you're encountering is caused by checking keycodes from a keydown event. The keycodes on keydown do not match to actual ascii character codes, so non-alphanumeric keys are getting converted into weird characters. If you change your even handler to respond tokeypress instead, you'll get better results.

I don't think you want a regex for this. I think charAt() will do what you want far more simply.
You have a character. You have a list of characters which either match it or don't. charAt() does that simply and efficiently.

Now that jcsanyi has helped you with the regex, here is a simplification of your JS code. Codepen
You will want to use keypress instead of keydown/keyup, otherwise your numpad will return the wrong keys, and anything requiring a shift (shift+8 = * for instance) won't work. You can also use RegExp.test(String) to check if the character is valid, and div.append(char) in place of div.html(div.html + char).
var div = $('#tb');
$(document).on("keypress", function(event) {
var char = String.fromCharCode(event.which);
if (/[0-9+*\/-]/.test(char) === true) {
div.append(char);
}
});