JS Regular Expressions

1. Regular Expression Intro

• What is: A regular expression is a sequence of characters that forms a search pattern.
• For what: The search pattern can be used for text search and text replace operations.

Syntax:

/pattern/modifiers;

Example:

var patt = /w3schools/i;

• /w3schools/i is a regular expression.
• w3schools is a pattern
• i is a modifier (modifies the search to be case-insensitive).

• In JavaScript, regular expressions are often used with the two string methods: search() and replace().
  • search(): uses an expression to search for a match, and returns the position of the match.
  • replace(): returns a modified string where the pattern is replaced.

2. search()

2.1. 1. Using String search() With a Regular Expression

Example:

Use a regular expression to do a case-insensitive search for "w3schools" in a string:

var str = "Visit W3Schools w3Schools";
var n = str.search(/w3schools/i);
console.log( n ); //6

2.2. 2. Using String search() With String

The search method will also accept a string as search argument. The string argument will be converted to a regular expression:

var str = "Visit W3Schools w3Schools";
var n = str.search('w3Schools');
console.log( n ); //16

3. replace()

var str = "Visit Orig Orig!";

// Use String replace() With a Regular Expression
console.log( str.replace(/orig/i, "New") );   //"Visit New Orig!"
console.log( str.replace(/orig/gi, "New") );  //"Visit New New!"
console.log( str.search(/orig/i) );           //6

// Using String replace() With a String
console.log( str.replace("Orig", "New") );    //"Visit New Orig!"
console.log( str.search("Orig") );            //6
console.log( str.replace("orig", "New") );    //"Visit Orig Orig!"
console.log( str.search("orig") );            //-1

4. Regular Expression Modifiers

Modifiers can be used to perform case-insensitive more global searches:

5. Regular Expression Patterns

5.1. Brackets []

are used to find a range of characters:

5.2. Metacharacters \d, \s, \uxxx

are characters with a special meaning:

5.3. Quantifiers

define quantities:

6. RegExp Object

In JavaScript, the RegExp object is a regular expression object with predefined properties and methods.

var patt = /orig/i;
console.log( typeof patt );       // "object"
console.log( patt );              // /orig/i
console.log( patt.toString() );   // "/orig/i"
console.log( patt.constructor );  // ƒ RegExp() { [native code] }

7. test()

• The test() method is a RegExp expression method.
• It searches a string for a pattern, and returns true or false, depending on the result.

console.log( /best/.test("The best things in life are free!") ); // true

var patt = /orig/i;
console.log( patt.test('Orig') );   // true
console.log( patt.test('orig') );   // true
console.log( patt.test('new') );    // false

8. exec()

• The exec() method is a RegExp expression method.
• It searches a string for a specified pattern, and returns the found text.
• If no match is found, it returns null.

console.log( /cde/.exec("abcdefghcde") );              // ["cde", index: 2, input: "abcdefghcde", groups: undefined]
console.log( typeof /cde/.exec("abcdefghcde") );       // "object"
console.log( /cde/.exec("abcdefghcde").toString() );   // "cde"

console.log( /best/.exec("The best things in life are free!") ); //["best", index: 4, input: "The best things in life are free!"]

var patt = /orig/i;
console.log( patt.exec('Hi Orig Orig') );   // ["Orig", index: 3, input: "Hi Orig Orig"]
console.log( patt.exec('Hi orig orig') );   // ["orig", index: 3, input: "Hi orig orig"]
console.log( patt.exec('Hi new') );         // null