CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregex
user310291
user310291

Reputation: 38228

Regex: why ; is not kept at the end

I'm still sucking at regex. I tried in chrome dev tools:

  regex = /\s|[(\;)]/;
  test = "test test-test-test test;"
  test.split(regex);

It didn't keep ";"

["test", "test-test-test", "test", ""]

whereas I wanted to get

["test", "test-test-test", "test", ";"]

Upvotes: 0

Views: 36

Answers (2)

Tim Biegeleisen
Tim Biegeleisen

Reputation: 522636

Consider splitting on the following slightly updated regex:

\s|(?=;)

This splits on a whitespace character or on a zero-width positive lookahead which asserts semicolon. The lookahead does not consume anything.

test = "test test-test-test test;"
var out = test.split(/\s|(?=;)/);
console.log(out);

Upvotes: 1

CertainPerformance
CertainPerformance

Reputation: 371148

Your [(\;)] will match either a (, a ;, or a ). If you wanted that to be a capture group, move it outside the character set, and filter out empty/undefined results to account for when the capture group is not matched. Since all you want to match is ;, there's no need for a character set anymore either:

regex = /\s|(;)/;
test = "test test-test-test test;"
console.log(test.split(regex).filter(Boolean));

Upvotes: 2

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