CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregexsquare-bracket
Kelly Redd
Kelly Redd

Reputation: 31

How to remove a number inside brackets at the end of string with regex

Looking to have a recursive function that takes a string and removes the ending '[x]'. For example 'abc [1] [3]' needs to be 'abc [1]'. The string could also be 'abc [1] [5] [2]' and would need to be 'abc [1] [5]'.

I'm trying str.replace(/[\\\[\d\\\]]$/, '') but it only replaces the very last closing bracket and ignores everything else.

Any ideas?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4326

Answers (5)

Felix Kling
Felix Kling

Reputation: 816404

If it is guaranteed that the string always contains a [number], you could just use substring and lastIndexOf:

str = str.substring(0, str.lastIndexOf('['));

Update: Or just add a test:

var index = str.lastIndexOf('[');
if(index > -1) {
    str = str.substring(0,index);
}

Upvotes: 2

kellpossible
kellpossible

Reputation: 693

/(.*)([\[].*[\]]\Z)/ should do it, you will need to do it using a match method, and it will provide two groups in an array, one with your required string, and the other with the ending in it.

Upvotes: 0

moinudin
moinudin

Reputation: 138347

\[\d+\]([^]]*)$ works in Python and should work in Javascript. This allows for trailing bits after the [x], which are left behind. I believe that's why you weren't seeing the expected results, because you left trailing whitespace behind. Also note that I changed the regex to allow x to be any number of digits -- if that's not what you want, remove the +.

Here's the code:

import re
s = 'abc [1] [5] [2]'
while True:
  new_s = re.sub(r'\[\d+\]([^]]*)$', r'\1', s)
  if new_s == s:
    break
  s = new_s
  print s

and the output:

abc [1] [5] 
abc [1]  
abc

Upvotes: 0

atshum
atshum

Reputation: 319

You don't need the outer enclosing brackets. Try: str.replace(/\[\d\]$/, '');

Upvotes: 8

charliegriefer
charliegriefer

Reputation: 3382

\[\d+\]$

that should say any bracket followed by any number of digits followed by a bracket, all at the end of the string.

I say "should" because I'm still not as proficient at regex as I'd like to be, but in regexr (a nifty little AIR app for testing regular expressions), it seems to work.

EDIT:

Just in case anybody wants to play around with regexr, it's at http://gskinner.com/RegExr/desktop/. I have no affiliation with it, I just think it's a nice tool to have.

Upvotes: 1

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