The document discusses regular expressions in JavaScript. It defines regular expressions as sequences of characters that form search patterns. It explains that regular expressions can be used to search and replace text. The document covers regular expression syntax, modifiers, patterns and quantifiers. It also discusses how to use regular expressions with string methods like search() and replace(), and with the RegExp object's test() and exec() methods.
The document discusses regular expressions in JavaScript. It defines regular expressions as sequences of characters that form search patterns. It explains that regular expressions can be used to search and replace text. The document covers regular expression syntax, modifiers, patterns and quantifiers. It also discusses how to use regular expressions with string methods like search() and replace(), and with the RegExp object's test() and exec() methods.
The document discusses regular expressions in JavaScript. It defines regular expressions as sequences of characters that form search patterns. It explains that regular expressions can be used to search and replace text. The document covers regular expression syntax, modifiers, patterns and quantifiers. It also discusses how to use regular expressions with string methods like search() and replace(), and with the RegExp object's test() and exec() methods.
The document discusses regular expressions in JavaScript. It defines regular expressions as sequences of characters that form search patterns. It explains that regular expressions can be used to search and replace text. The document covers regular expression syntax, modifiers, patterns and quantifiers. It also discusses how to use regular expressions with string methods like search() and replace(), and with the RegExp object's test() and exec() methods.
Regular Expressions B.Bhuvaneswaran Assistant Professor (SS) Department of Computer Science & Engineering Rajalakshmi Engineering College Thandalam Chennai 602 105 bhuvaneswaran@rajalakshmi.edu.in
Regular Expressions A regular expression is a sequence of characters that forms a search pattern. The search pattern can be used for text search and text replace operations.
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
What Is a Regular Expression?
A regular expression is a sequence of characters that forms a search pattern. When you search for data in a text, you can use this search pattern to describe what you are searching for. A regular expression can be a single character, or a more complicated pattern. Regular expressions can be used to perform all types of text search and text replace operations.
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Syntax
/pattern/modifiers;
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Example:
var patt = /w3schools/i;
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Example explained: /w3schools/i is a regular expression. w3schools is a pattern (to be used in a search). i is a modifier (modifies the search to be case-insensitive).
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Using String Methods
In JavaScript, regular expressions are often used with the two string methods: search() and replace(). The search() method uses an expression to search for a match, and returns the position of the match. The replace() method returns a modified string where the pattern is replaced.
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Using String search() With a Regular
Expression Example Use a regular expression to do a caseinsensitive search for "w3schools" in a string: var str = "Visit W3Schools"; var n = str.search(/w3schools/i); The result in n will be: 6
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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: Example Use a string to do a search for "W3schools" in a string: var str = "Visit W3Schools!"; var n = str.search("W3Schools");
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Use String replace() With a Regular
Expression Example Use a case insensitive regular expression to replace Microsoft with W3Schools in a string: var str = "Visit Microsoft!"; var res = str.replace(/microsoft/i, "W3Schools"); The result in res will be: Visit W3Schools!
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Using String replace() With a String
The replace() method will also accept a
string as search argument: var str = "Visit Microsoft!"; var res = str.replace("Microsoft", "W3Schools");
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Did You Notice?
Regular expression arguments (instead of string arguments) can be used in the methods above. Regular expressions can make your search much more powerful (case insensitive for example).
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Regular Expression Modifiers
Modifiers can be used to perform caseinsensitive more global searches:
Modifier Description i Perform case-insensitive matching g Perform a global match (find all matches rather than stopping after the first match) m Perform multiline matching
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Regular Expression Patterns
Brackets are used to find a range of
characters: Expression Description [abc] Find any of the characters between the brackets [0-9] Find any of the digits between the brackets (x|y) Find any of the alternatives separated with | B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Metacharacters are characters with a
special meaning: Metacharacter Description \d Find a digit \s Find a whitespace character \b Find a match at the beginning or at the end of a word \uxxxx Find the Unicode character specified by the hexadecimal number xxxx B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Quantifiers define quantities:
Quantifier Description n+ Matches any string that contains at least one n n* Matches any string that contains zero or more occurrences of n n? Matches any string that contains zero or one occurrences of n B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Using the RegExp Object
In JavaScript, the RegExp object is a
regular expression object with predefined properties and methods.
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Using 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.
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Example The following example searches a string for the character "e": var patt = /e/; patt.test("The best things in life are free!"); Since there is an "e" in the string, the output of the code above will be: true
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
You don't have to put the regular
expression in a variable first. The two lines above can be shortened to one: /e/.test("The best things in life are free!");
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Using 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.
B.Bhuvaneswaran / AP (SS) / CSE / REC
Example The following example searches a string for the character "e": /e/.exec("The best things in life are free!"); Since there is an "e" in the string, the output of the code above will be: e
