CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregexwhitespace
Bill Dami
Bill Dami

Reputation: 3225

Regex that matches anything except for all whitespace

I need a (javascript compliant) regex that will match any string except a string that contains only whitespace. Cases:

" "         (one space) => doesn't match
"    "      (multiple adjacent spaces) => doesn't match
"foo"       (no whitespace) => matches
"foo bar"   (whitespace between non-whitespace) => matches
"foo  "     (trailing whitespace) => matches
"  foo"     (leading whitespace) => matches
"  foo   "  (leading and trailing whitespace) => matches

Upvotes: 20

Views: 22913

Answers (5)

user1106925
user1106925

Reputation:

This looks for at least one non whitespace character.

/\S/.test("   ");      // false
/\S/.test(" ");        // false
/\S/.test("");         // false


/\S/.test("foo");      // true
/\S/.test("foo bar");  // true
/\S/.test("foo  ");    // true
/\S/.test("  foo");    // true
/\S/.test("  foo   "); // true

I guess I'm assuming that an empty string should be consider whitespace only.

If an empty string (which technically doesn't contain all whitespace, because it contains nothing) should pass the test, then change it to...

/\S|^$/.test("  ");      // false

/\S|^$/.test("");        // true
/\S|^$/.test("  foo  "); // true

Upvotes: 28

vol7ron
vol7ron

Reputation: 42099

[Am not I am]'s answer is the best:

/\S/.test("foo");

Alternatively you can do:

/[^\s]/.test("foo");

Upvotes: 2

gion_13
gion_13

Reputation: 41533

/^\s*\S+(\s?\S)*\s*$/

demo : 

var regex = /^\s*\S+(\s?\S)*\s*$/;
var cases = [" ","   ","foo","foo bar","foo  ","  foo","  foo   "];
for(var i=0,l=cases.length;i<l;i++)
    {
        if(regex.test(cases[i]))
            console.log(cases[i]+' matches');
        else
            console.log(cases[i]+' doesn\'t match');

    }

working demo : http://jsfiddle.net/PNtfH/1/

Upvotes: 2

Phrogz
Phrogz

Reputation: 303205

if (myStr.replace(/\s+/g,'').length){
  // has content
}

if (/\S/.test(myStr)){
  // has content
}

Upvotes: 1

Joe A
Joe A

Reputation: 208

Try this expression:

/\S+/

\S mean any non-whitespace character.

Upvotes: 8

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