CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregex
Himanshu Tanwar
Himanshu Tanwar

Reputation: 906

Matching a string with regular expression returns null

I am trying to match a string for two cases by a single regular expressing in JavaScript. The string can be in any one of the given formats

//Singapore
//Singapore (country)

I have tried the following regular expression to match the strings

"singapore".match(/(.*) (?:\((.*)\))?/)
//null
"singapore (country)".match(/(.*) (?:\((.*)\))?/)
//["singapore (country)", "singapore", "country"]

I want both the results to return an array like the 2nd case where the 3rd entry in the array can be undefined/empty or not present at all but the result should not be null.

Can this be done by a single regular expression. If yes then what is the mistake in the above expression

Upvotes: 0

Views: 105

Answers (1)

Denys Séguret
Denys Séguret

Reputation: 382122

You need to put the space in the optional group, because it's not here in the case of just "singapore": /^([^\(]*)(?: \(([^\)]*)\))?$/

Upvotes: 4

Related Questions