Regular expression to match non-ASCII characters?

Question

What is the easiest way to match non-ASCII characters in a regex? I would like to match all words individually in an input string, but the language may not be English, so I will need to match things like ü, ö, ß, and ñ. Also, this is in Javascript/jQuery, so any solution will need to apply to that.

Answer 1

You can always exclude the printable characters tab and space to tilde. Accents should show up. (powershell). Note there's some weird unicode exceptions where a foreign capital letter has an english small letter İ K, so a case insensitive match will give unexpected results.

'ü' | select-string '[^\t -~]' -CaseSensitive

ü

Answer 2

Unicode Property Escapes are among the features of ES2018.

Basic Usage

With Unicode Property Escapes, you can match a letter from any language with the following simple regular expression:

/\p{Letter}/u

Or with the shorthand, even terser:

/\p{L}/u

Matching Words

Regarding the question's concrete use case (matching words), note that you can use Unicode Property Escapes in character classes, making it easy to match letters together with other word-characters like hyphens:

/[\p{L}-]/u

Stitching it all together, you could match words of all^[1] languages with this beautifully short RegEx:

/[\p{L}-]+/ug

Example (shamelessly plugged from the answer above):

'Düsseldorf, Köln, Москва, 北京市, إسرائيل !@#$'.match(/[\p{L}-]+/ug)

// ["Düsseldorf", "Köln", "Москва", "北京市", "إسرائيل"]

^[1] Note that I'm not an expert on languages. You may still want to do your own research regarding other characters that might be parts of words besides letters and hyphens.

Browser Support

This feature is available in all major evergreen browsers.

Transpiling

If support for older browsers is needed, Unicode Property Escapes can be transpiled to ES5 with a tool called regexpu. There's an online demo available here. As you can see in the demo, you can in fact match non-latin letters today with the following (horribly long) ES5 regular expression:

/(?:[A-Za-z\xAA\xB5\xBA\xC0-\xD6\xD8-\xF6\xF8-\u02C1\u02C6-\u02D1\u02E0-\u02E4\u02EC\u02EE\u0370-\u0374\u0376\u0377\u037A-\u037D\u037F\u0386\u0388-\u038A\u038C\u038E-\u03A1\u03A3-\u03F5\u03F7-\u0481\u048A-\u052F\u0531-\u0556\u0559\u0561-\u0587\u05D0-\u05EA\u05F0-\u05F2\u0620-\u064A\u066E\u066F\u0671-\u06D3\u06D5\u06E5\u06E6\u06EE\u06EF\u06FA-\u06FC\u06FF\u0710\u0712-\u072F\u074D-\u07A5\u07B1\u07CA-\u07EA\u07F4\u07F5\u07FA\u0800-\u0815\u081A\u0824\u0828\u0840-\u0858\u0860-\u086A\u08A0-\u08B4\u08B6-\u08BD\u0904-\u0939\u093D\u0950\u0958-\u0961\u0971-\u0980\u0985-\u098C\u098F\u0990\u0993-\u09A8\u09AA-\u09B0\u09B2\u09B6-\u09B9\u09BD\u09CE\u09DC\u09DD\u09DF-\u09E1\u09F0\u09F1\u09FC\u0A05-\u0A0A\u0A0F\u0A10\u0A13-\u0A28\u0A2A-\u0A30\u0A32\u0A33\u0A35\u0A36\u0A38\u0A39\u0A59-\u0A5C\u0A5E\u0A72-\u0A74\u0A85-\u0A8D\u0A8F-\u0A91\u0A93-\u0AA8\u0AAA-\u0AB0\u0AB2\u0AB3\u0AB5-\u0AB9\u0ABD\u0AD0\u0AE0\u0AE1\u0AF9\u0B05-\u0B0C\u0B0F\u0B10\u0B13-\u0B28\u0B2A-\u0B30\u0B32\u0B33\u0B35-\u0B39\u0B3D\u0B5C\u0B5D\u0B5F-\u0B61\u0B71\u0B83\u0B85-\u0B8A\u0B8E-\u0B90\u0B92-\u0B95\u0B99\u0B9A\u0B9C\u0B9E\u0B9F\u0BA3\u0BA4\u0BA8-\u0BAA\u0BAE-\u0BB9\u0BD0\u0C05-\u0C0C\u0C0E-\u0C10\u0C12-\u0C28\u0C2A-\u0C39\u0C3D\u0C58-\u0C5A\u0C60\u0C61\u0C80\u0C85-\u0C8C\u0C8E-\u0C90\u0C92-\u0CA8\u0CAA-\u0CB3\u0CB5-\u0CB9\u0CBD\u0CDE\u0CE0\u0CE1\u0CF1\u0CF2\u0D05-\u0D0C\u0D0E-\u0D10\u0D12-\u0D3A\u0D3D\u0D4E\u0D54-\u0D56\u0D5F-\u0D61\u0D7A-\u0D7F\u0D85-\u0D96\u0D9A-\u0DB1\u0DB3-\u0DBB\u0DBD\u0DC0-\u0DC6\u0E01-\u0E30\u0E32\u0E33\u0E40-\u0E46\u0E81\u0E82\u0E84\u0E87\u0E88\u0E8A\u0E8D\u0E94-\u0E97\u0E99-\u0E9F\u0EA1-\u0EA3\u0EA5\u0EA7\u0EAA\u0EAB\u0EAD-\u0EB0\u0EB2\u0EB3\u0EBD\u0EC0-\u0EC4\u0EC6\u0EDC-\u0EDF\u0F00\u0F40-\u0F47\u0F49-\u0F6C\u0F88-\u0F8C\u1000-\u102A\u103F\u1050-\u1055\u105A-\u105D\u1061\u1065\u1066\u106E-\u1070\u1075-\u1081\u108E\u10A0-\u10C5\u10C7\u10CD\u10D0-\u10FA\u10FC-\u1248\u124A-\u124D\u1250-\u1256\u1258\u125A-\u125D\u1260-\u1288\u128A-\u128D\u1290-\u12B0\u12B2-\u12B5\u12B8-\u12BE\u12C0\u12C2-\u12C5\u12C8-\u12D6\u12D8-\u1310\u1312-\u1315\u1318-\u135A\u1380-\u138F\u13A0-\u13F5\u13F8-\u13FD\u1401-\u166C\u166F-\u167F\u1681-\u169A\u16A0-\u16EA\u16F1-\u16F8\u1700-\u170C\u170E-\u1711\u1720-\u1731\u1740-\u1751\u1760-\u176C\u176E-\u1770\u1780-\u17B3\u17D7\u17DC\u1820-\u1877\u1880-\u1884\u1887-\u18A8\u18AA\u18B0-\u18F5\u1900-\u191E\u1950-\u196D\u1970-\u1974\u1980-\u19AB\u19B0-\u19C9\u1A00-\u1A16\u1A20-\u1A54\u1AA7\u1B05-\u1B33\u1B45-\u1B4B\u1B83-\u1BA0\u1BAE\u1BAF\u1BBA-\u1BE5\u1C00-\u1C23\u1C4D-\u1C4F\u1C5A-\u1C7D\u1C80-\u1C88\u1CE9-\u1CEC\u1CEE-\u1CF1\u1CF5\u1CF6\u1D00-\u1DBF\u1E00-\u1F15\u1F18-\u1F1D\u1F20-\u1F45\u1F48-\u1F4D\u1F50-\u1F57\u1F59\u1F5B\u1F5D\u1F5F-\u1F7D\u1F80-\u1FB4\u1FB6-\u1FBC\u1FBE\u1FC2-\u1FC4\u1FC6-\u1FCC\u1FD0-\u1FD3\u1FD6-\u1FDB\u1FE0-\u1FEC\u1FF2-\u1FF4\u1FF6-\u1FFC\u2071\u207F\u2090-\u209C\u2102\u2107\u210A-\u2113\u2115\u2119-\u211D\u2124\u2126\u2128\u212A-\u212D\u212F-\u2139\u213C-\u213F\u2145-\u2149\u214E\u2183\u2184\u2C00-\u2C2E\u2C30-\u2C5E\u2C60-\u2CE4\u2CEB-\u2CEE\u2CF2\u2CF3\u2D00-\u2D25\u2D27\u2D2D\u2D30-\u2D67\u2D6F\u2D80-\u2D96\u2DA0-\u2DA6\u2DA8-\u2DAE\u2DB0-\u2DB6\u2DB8-\u2DBE\u2DC0-\u2DC6\u2DC8-\u2DCE\u2DD0-\u2DD6\u2DD8-\u2DDE\u2E2F\u3005\u3006\u3031-\u3035\u303B\u303C\u3041-\u3096\u309D-\u309F\u30A1-\u30FA\u30FC-\u30FF\u3105-\u312E\u3131-\u318E\u31A0-\u31BA\u31F0-\u31FF\u3400-\u4DB5\u4E00-\u9FEA\uA000-\uA48C\uA4D0-\uA4FD\uA500-\uA60C\uA610-\uA61F\uA62A\uA62B\uA640-\uA66E\uA67F-\uA69D\uA6A0-\uA6E5\uA717-\uA71F\uA722-\uA788\uA78B-\uA7AE\uA7B0-\uA7B7\uA7F7-\uA801\uA803-\uA805\uA807-\uA80A\uA80C-\uA822\uA840-\uA873\uA882-\uA8B3\uA8F2-\uA8F7\uA8FB\uA8FD\uA90A-\uA925\uA930-\uA946\uA960-\uA97C\uA984-\uA9B2\uA9CF\uA9E0-\uA9E4\uA9E6-\uA9EF\uA9FA-\uA9FE\uAA00-\uAA28\uAA40-\uAA42\uAA44-\uAA4B\uAA60-\uAA76\uAA7A\uAA7E-\uAAAF\uAAB1\uAAB5\uAAB6\uAAB9-\uAABD\uAAC0\uAAC2\uAADB-\uAADD\uAAE0-\uAAEA\uAAF2-\uAAF4\uAB01-\uAB06\uAB09-\uAB0E\uAB11-\uAB16\uAB20-\uAB26\uAB28-\uAB2E\uAB30-\uAB5A\uAB5C-\uAB65\uAB70-\uABE2\uAC00-\uD7A3\uD7B0-\uD7C6\uD7CB-\uD7FB\uF900-\uFA6D\uFA70-\uFAD9\uFB00-\uFB06\uFB13-\uFB17\uFB1D\uFB1F-\uFB28\uFB2A-\uFB36\uFB38-\uFB3C\uFB3E\uFB40\uFB41\uFB43\uFB44\uFB46-\uFBB1\uFBD3-\uFD3D\uFD50-\uFD8F\uFD92-\uFDC7\uFDF0-\uFDFB\uFE70-\uFE74\uFE76-\uFEFC\uFF21-\uFF3A\uFF41-\uFF5A\uFF66-\uFFBE\uFFC2-\uFFC7\uFFCA-\uFFCF\uFFD2-\uFFD7\uFFDA-\uFFDC]|\uD800[\uDC00-\uDC0B\uDC0D-\uDC26\uDC28-\uDC3A\uDC3C\uDC3D\uDC3F-\uDC4D\uDC50-\uDC5D\uDC80-\uDCFA\uDE80-\uDE9C\uDEA0-\uDED0\uDF00-\uDF1F\uDF2D-\uDF40\uDF42-\uDF49\uDF50-\uDF75\uDF80-\uDF9D\uDFA0-\uDFC3\uDFC8-\uDFCF]|\uD801[\uDC00-\uDC9D\uDCB0-\uDCD3\uDCD8-\uDCFB\uDD00-\uDD27\uDD30-\uDD63\uDE00-\uDF36\uDF40-\uDF55\uDF60-\uDF67]|\uD802[\uDC00-\uDC05\uDC08\uDC0A-\uDC35\uDC37\uDC38\uDC3C\uDC3F-\uDC55\uDC60-\uDC76\uDC80-\uDC9E\uDCE0-\uDCF2\uDCF4\uDCF5\uDD00-\uDD15\uDD20-\uDD39\uDD80-\uDDB7\uDDBE\uDDBF\uDE00\uDE10-\uDE13\uDE15-\uDE17\uDE19-\uDE33\uDE60-\uDE7C\uDE80-\uDE9C\uDEC0-\uDEC7\uDEC9-\uDEE4\uDF00-\uDF35\uDF40-\uDF55\uDF60-\uDF72\uDF80-\uDF91]|\uD803[\uDC00-\uDC48\uDC80-\uDCB2\uDCC0-\uDCF2]|\uD804[\uDC03-\uDC37\uDC83-\uDCAF\uDCD0-\uDCE8\uDD03-\uDD26\uDD50-\uDD72\uDD76\uDD83-\uDDB2\uDDC1-\uDDC4\uDDDA\uDDDC\uDE00-\uDE11\uDE13-\uDE2B\uDE80-\uDE86\uDE88\uDE8A-\uDE8D\uDE8F-\uDE9D\uDE9F-\uDEA8\uDEB0-\uDEDE\uDF05-\uDF0C\uDF0F\uDF10\uDF13-\uDF28\uDF2A-\uDF30\uDF32\uDF33\uDF35-\uDF39\uDF3D\uDF50\uDF5D-\uDF61]|\uD805[\uDC00-\uDC34\uDC47-\uDC4A\uDC80-\uDCAF\uDCC4\uDCC5\uDCC7\uDD80-\uDDAE\uDDD8-\uDDDB\uDE00-\uDE2F\uDE44\uDE80-\uDEAA\uDF00-\uDF19]|\uD806[\uDCA0-\uDCDF\uDCFF\uDE00\uDE0B-\uDE32\uDE3A\uDE50\uDE5C-\uDE83\uDE86-\uDE89\uDEC0-\uDEF8]|\uD807[\uDC00-\uDC08\uDC0A-\uDC2E\uDC40\uDC72-\uDC8F\uDD00-\uDD06\uDD08\uDD09\uDD0B-\uDD30\uDD46]|\uD808[\uDC00-\uDF99]|\uD809[\uDC80-\uDD43]|[\uD80C\uD81C-\uD820\uD840-\uD868\uD86A-\uD86C\uD86F-\uD872\uD874-\uD879][\uDC00-\uDFFF]|\uD80D[\uDC00-\uDC2E]|\uD811[\uDC00-\uDE46]|\uD81A[\uDC00-\uDE38\uDE40-\uDE5E\uDED0-\uDEED\uDF00-\uDF2F\uDF40-\uDF43\uDF63-\uDF77\uDF7D-\uDF8F]|\uD81B[\uDF00-\uDF44\uDF50\uDF93-\uDF9F\uDFE0\uDFE1]|\uD821[\uDC00-\uDFEC]|\uD822[\uDC00-\uDEF2]|\uD82C[\uDC00-\uDD1E\uDD70-\uDEFB]|\uD82F[\uDC00-\uDC6A\uDC70-\uDC7C\uDC80-\uDC88\uDC90-\uDC99]|\uD835[\uDC00-\uDC54\uDC56-\uDC9C\uDC9E\uDC9F\uDCA2\uDCA5\uDCA6\uDCA9-\uDCAC\uDCAE-\uDCB9\uDCBB\uDCBD-\uDCC3\uDCC5-\uDD05\uDD07-\uDD0A\uDD0D-\uDD14\uDD16-\uDD1C\uDD1E-\uDD39\uDD3B-\uDD3E\uDD40-\uDD44\uDD46\uDD4A-\uDD50\uDD52-\uDEA5\uDEA8-\uDEC0\uDEC2-\uDEDA\uDEDC-\uDEFA\uDEFC-\uDF14\uDF16-\uDF34\uDF36-\uDF4E\uDF50-\uDF6E\uDF70-\uDF88\uDF8A-\uDFA8\uDFAA-\uDFC2\uDFC4-\uDFCB]|\uD83A[\uDC00-\uDCC4\uDD00-\uDD43]|\uD83B[\uDE00-\uDE03\uDE05-\uDE1F\uDE21\uDE22\uDE24\uDE27\uDE29-\uDE32\uDE34-\uDE37\uDE39\uDE3B\uDE42\uDE47\uDE49\uDE4B\uDE4D-\uDE4F\uDE51\uDE52\uDE54\uDE57\uDE59\uDE5B\uDE5D\uDE5F\uDE61\uDE62\uDE64\uDE67-\uDE6A\uDE6C-\uDE72\uDE74-\uDE77\uDE79-\uDE7C\uDE7E\uDE80-\uDE89\uDE8B-\uDE9B\uDEA1-\uDEA3\uDEA5-\uDEA9\uDEAB-\uDEBB]|\uD869[\uDC00-\uDED6\uDF00-\uDFFF]|\uD86D[\uDC00-\uDF34\uDF40-\uDFFF]|\uD86E[\uDC00-\uDC1D\uDC20-\uDFFF]|\uD873[\uDC00-\uDEA1\uDEB0-\uDFFF]|\uD87A[\uDC00-\uDFE0]|\uD87E[\uDC00-\uDE1D])/

If you're using Babel, there's also a regexpu-powered plugin for that (Babel v6 plugin, Babel v7 plugin).

Answer 3

I had a problem with \p working as expected, so I just used a different strategy like:

([^\t]+)\t

Find anything that is not a tab character until the next tab character... obviously this depends on your search source, but you get the idea. Now I don't have to figure out what unicode characters work and don't work etc.

Answer 4

var words_in_text = function (text) {
    var regex = /([\u0041-\u005A\u0061-\u007A\u00AA\u00B5\u00BA\u00C0-\u00D6\u00D8-\u00F6\u00F8-\u02C1\u02C6-\u02D1\u02E0-\u02E4\u02EC\u02EE\u0370-\u0374\u0376\u0377\u037A-\u037D\u0386\u0388-\u038A\u038C\u038E-\u03A1\u03A3-\u03F5\u03F7-\u0481\u048A-\u0527\u0531-\u0556\u0559\u0561-\u0587\u05D0-\u05EA\u05F0-\u05F2\u0620-\u064A\u066E\u066F\u0671-\u06D3\u06D5\u06E5\u06E6\u06EE\u06EF\u06FA-\u06FC\u06FF\u0710\u0712-\u072F\u074D-\u07A5\u07B1\u07CA-\u07EA\u07F4\u07F5\u07FA\u0800-\u0815\u081A\u0824\u0828\u0840-\u0858\u08A0\u08A2-\u08AC\u0904-\u0939\u093D\u0950\u0958-\u0961\u0971-\u0977\u0979-\u097F\u0985-\u098C\u098F\u0990\u0993-\u09A8\u09AA-\u09B0\u09B2\u09B6-\u09B9\u09BD\u09CE\u09DC\u09DD\u09DF-\u09E1\u09F0\u09F1\u0A05-\u0A0A\u0A0F\u0A10\u0A13-\u0A28\u0A2A-\u0A30\u0A32\u0A33\u0A35\u0A36\u0A38\u0A39\u0A59-\u0A5C\u0A5E\u0A72-\u0A74\u0A85-\u0A8D\u0A8F-\u0A91\u0A93-\u0AA8\u0AAA-\u0AB0\u0AB2\u0AB3\u0AB5-\u0AB9\u0ABD\u0AD0\u0AE0\u0AE1\u0B05-\u0B0C\u0B0F\u0B10\u0B13-\u0B28\u0B2A-\u0B30\u0B32\u0B33\u0B35-\u0B39\u0B3D\u0B5C\u0B5D\u0B5F-\u0B61\u0B71\u0B83\u0B85-\u0B8A\u0B8E-\u0B90\u0B92-\u0B95\u0B99\u0B9A\u0B9C\u0B9E\u0B9F\u0BA3\u0BA4\u0BA8-\u0BAA\u0BAE-\u0BB9\u0BD0\u0C05-\u0C0C\u0C0E-\u0C10\u0C12-\u0C28\u0C2A-\u0C33\u0C35-\u0C39\u0C3D\u0C58\u0C59\u0C60\u0C61\u0C85-\u0C8C\u0C8E-\u0C90\u0C92-\u0CA8\u0CAA-\u0CB3\u0CB5-\u0CB9\u0CBD\u0CDE\u0CE0\u0CE1\u0CF1\u0CF2\u0D05-\u0D0C\u0D0E-\u0D10\u0D12-\u0D3A\u0D3D\u0D4E\u0D60\u0D61\u0D7A-\u0D7F\u0D85-\u0D96\u0D9A-\u0DB1\u0DB3-\u0DBB\u0DBD\u0DC0-\u0DC6\u0E01-\u0E30\u0E32\u0E33\u0E40-\u0E46\u0E81\u0E82\u0E84\u0E87\u0E88\u0E8A\u0E8D\u0E94-\u0E97\u0E99-\u0E9F\u0EA1-\u0EA3\u0EA5\u0EA7\u0EAA\u0EAB\u0EAD-\u0EB0\u0EB2\u0EB3\u0EBD\u0EC0-\u0EC4\u0EC6\u0EDC-\u0EDF\u0F00\u0F40-\u0F47\u0F49-\u0F6C\u0F88-\u0F8C\u1000-\u102A\u103F\u1050-\u1055\u105A-\u105D\u1061\u1065\u1066\u106E-\u1070\u1075-\u1081\u108E\u10A0-\u10C5\u10C7\u10CD\u10D0-\u10FA\u10FC-\u1248\u124A-\u124D\u1250-\u1256\u1258\u125A-\u125D\u1260-\u1288\u128A-\u128D\u1290-\u12B0\u12B2-\u12B5\u12B8-\u12BE\u12C0\u12C2-\u12C5\u12C8-\u12D6\u12D8-\u1310\u1312-\u1315\u1318-\u135A\u1380-\u138F\u13A0-\u13F4\u1401-\u166C\u166F-\u167F\u1681-\u169A\u16A0-\u16EA\u1700-\u170C\u170E-\u1711\u1720-\u1731\u1740-\u1751\u1760-\u176C\u176E-\u1770\u1780-\u17B3\u17D7\u17DC\u1820-\u1877\u1880-\u18A8\u18AA\u18B0-\u18F5\u1900-\u191C\u1950-\u196D\u1970-\u1974\u1980-\u19AB\u19C1-\u19C7\u1A00-\u1A16\u1A20-\u1A54\u1AA7\u1B05-\u1B33\u1B45-\u1B4B\u1B83-\u1BA0\u1BAE\u1BAF\u1BBA-\u1BE5\u1C00-\u1C23\u1C4D-\u1C4F\u1C5A-\u1C7D\u1CE9-\u1CEC\u1CEE-\u1CF1\u1CF5\u1CF6\u1D00-\u1DBF\u1E00-\u1F15\u1F18-\u1F1D\u1F20-\u1F45\u1F48-\u1F4D\u1F50-\u1F57\u1F59\u1F5B\u1F5D\u1F5F-\u1F7D\u1F80-\u1FB4\u1FB6-\u1FBC\u1FBE\u1FC2-\u1FC4\u1FC6-\u1FCC\u1FD0-\u1FD3\u1FD6-\u1FDB\u1FE0-\u1FEC\u1FF2-\u1FF4\u1FF6-\u1FFC\u2071\u207F\u2090-\u209C\u2102\u2107\u210A-\u2113\u2115\u2119-\u211D\u2124\u2126\u2128\u212A-\u212D\u212F-\u2139\u213C-\u213F\u2145-\u2149\u214E\u2183\u2184\u2C00-\u2C2E\u2C30-\u2C5E\u2C60-\u2CE4\u2CEB-\u2CEE\u2CF2\u2CF3\u2D00-\u2D25\u2D27\u2D2D\u2D30-\u2D67\u2D6F\u2D80-\u2D96\u2DA0-\u2DA6\u2DA8-\u2DAE\u2DB0-\u2DB6\u2DB8-\u2DBE\u2DC0-\u2DC6\u2DC8-\u2DCE\u2DD0-\u2DD6\u2DD8-\u2DDE\u2E2F\u3005\u3006\u3031-\u3035\u303B\u303C\u3041-\u3096\u309D-\u309F\u30A1-\u30FA\u30FC-\u30FF\u3105-\u312D\u3131-\u318E\u31A0-\u31BA\u31F0-\u31FF\u3400-\u4DB5\u4E00-\u9FCC\uA000-\uA48C\uA4D0-\uA4FD\uA500-\uA60C\uA610-\uA61F\uA62A\uA62B\uA640-\uA66E\uA67F-\uA697\uA6A0-\uA6E5\uA717-\uA71F\uA722-\uA788\uA78B-\uA78E\uA790-\uA793\uA7A0-\uA7AA\uA7F8-\uA801\uA803-\uA805\uA807-\uA80A\uA80C-\uA822\uA840-\uA873\uA882-\uA8B3\uA8F2-\uA8F7\uA8FB\uA90A-\uA925\uA930-\uA946\uA960-\uA97C\uA984-\uA9B2\uA9CF\uAA00-\uAA28\uAA40-\uAA42\uAA44-\uAA4B\uAA60-\uAA76\uAA7A\uAA80-\uAAAF\uAAB1\uAAB5\uAAB6\uAAB9-\uAABD\uAAC0\uAAC2\uAADB-\uAADD\uAAE0-\uAAEA\uAAF2-\uAAF4\uAB01-\uAB06\uAB09-\uAB0E\uAB11-\uAB16\uAB20-\uAB26\uAB28-\uAB2E\uABC0-\uABE2\uAC00-\uD7A3\uD7B0-\uD7C6\uD7CB-\uD7FB\uF900-\uFA6D\uFA70-\uFAD9\uFB00-\uFB06\uFB13-\uFB17\uFB1D\uFB1F-\uFB28\uFB2A-\uFB36\uFB38-\uFB3C\uFB3E\uFB40\uFB41\uFB43\uFB44\uFB46-\uFBB1\uFBD3-\uFD3D\uFD50-\uFD8F\uFD92-\uFDC7\uFDF0-\uFDFB\uFE70-\uFE74\uFE76-\uFEFC\uFF21-\uFF3A\uFF41-\uFF5A\uFF66-\uFFBE\uFFC2-\uFFC7\uFFCA-\uFFCF\uFFD2-\uFFD7\uFFDA-\uFFDC]+)/g;
    return text.match(regex);
};

words_in_text('Düsseldorf, Köln, Москва, 北京市, إسرائيل !@#$');

// returns array ["Düsseldorf", "Köln", "Москва", "北京市", "إسرائيل"]

This regex will match all words in the text of any language...

Answer 5

This should do it:

[^\x00-\x7F]+

It matches any character which is not contained in the ASCII character set (0-127, i.e. 0x0 to 0x7F).

You can do the same thing with Unicode:

[^\u0000-\u007F]+

For unicode you can look at this 2 resources:

• Code charts list of Unicode ranges
• This tool to create a regex filtered by Unicode block.

Answer 6

The answer given by Jeremy Ruten is great, but I think it's not exactly what Paul Wicks was searching for. If I understand correctly Paul asked about expression to match non-english words like können or móc. Jeremy's regex matches only non-english letters, so there's need for small improvement:

([^\x00-\x7F]|\w)+

or

([^\u0000-\u007F]|\w)+

This [^\x00-\x7F] and this [^\u0000-\u007F] parts allow regullar expression to match non-english letters.

This (|) is logical or and \w is english letter, so ([^\u0000-\u007F]|\w) will match single english or non-english letter.

+ at the end of the expression means it could be repeated, so the whole expression allows all english or non-english letters to match.

Here you can test the first expression with various strings and here is the second.

Answer 7

The situation with regexes, Unicode, and Javascript sucks. It's ridiculous that programmers should have to rely on external libraries to recognize that "Αλφα" is a word, or even that "é" is a letter.

But so it goes.

This guy has written a good library for handling Unicode in Javascript Regexes:

http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/javascript-regex-and-unicode

The Unicode stuff is a plugin to this regex library:

http://xregexp.com/

Here's a post about the Unicode extension:

http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/xregexp-unicode-plugin

And the extension page itself:

http://xregexp.com/plugins/

Great work but it still bums me out that Javascript is so backwards in this regard.

(He wrote a book for O'Reilly about the topic so it's quite possible that he knows what he's talking about.)

The way he implemented it is by adding tables of characters with certain properties. Then, when you contruct a regex with his library, \p{charclass} gets replaced with [allthecharactersintheclass].

Answer 8

You do the same way as any other character matching, but you use \uXXXX where XXXX is the unicode number of the character.

Look at: http://unicode.org/charts/charindex.html

http://unicode.org/charts/

http://www.decodeunicode.org/

Answer 9

All Unicode-enabled Regex flavours should have a special character class like \w that match any Unicode letter. Take a look at your specific flavour here.