CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregex
Jaison Justus
Jaison Justus

Reputation: 2793

Regular Expression match in javascript

I have the string SUM([A2:A10],[B2:B10],[C2:C10],[D2:D10]) and I need to get the elements [A2:A10],[B2:B10],[C2:C10],[D2:D10] in an array, so I used match() in js. The code snippet is

var formula = "SUM([A2:A10],[B2:B10],[C2:C10],[D2:D10])";
var reg = /\[(a-zA-Z0-9)+\]/;
matches = formula.match(reg);

But I am not getting the match. I hope the regular expression is wrong. I am very poor in building regular expression. What will be the correct regular expression?

Upvotes: 9

Views: 26342

Answers (6)

Chetter Hummin
Chetter Hummin

Reputation: 6817

The regex you need is 

/\[[A-Z][0-9]+:[A-Z][0-9]+\]/gi

The g modifier indicates that we should do a global mtching and return all the results, not just the first

The i modifier indicates that we need a case-insensitive matching

An assumption made is that you don't want to include [E2:E10:], because of extra semicolon

Upvotes: 2

Another Code
Another Code

Reputation: 3151

Try it like this:

var formula = 'SUM([A2:A10],[B2:B10],[C2:C10],[D2:D10])';
var reg = /\[\w+:\w+\]/g;
matches = formula.match(reg);

Output:

["[A2:A10]", "[B2:B10]", "[C2:C10]", "[D2:D10]"]

Your regex was in the right direction, but didn't include the colon and captured individual characters. The \w escape sequence I used is a shortcut for a word character ([a-zA-Z0-9_]), makes it more readable. The g flag is necessary to get all matches instead of just the first one.

Upvotes: 19

jfriend00
jfriend00

Reputation: 707158

var str = "SUM([A2:A10],[B2:B10],[C2:C10],[D2:D10])";

var matches = str.match(/\[[A-Z0-9:]+\]/g);
alert(matches);​

Note, you use the g flag on the regex to get all the matches.

You can see it working here: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/aTrLU/

Upvotes: 2

ZER0
ZER0

Reputation: 25322

I believe you forgot the quotes. Also, what you need is also the global flag. Here the code:

var formula = "SUM([A2:A10],[B2:B10],[C2:C10],[D2:D10])";
var reg = /\[[0-z]+:[0-z]+\]/g;
var matches = formula.match(reg);

Upvotes: 0

Diode
Diode

Reputation: 25135

var formula = "SUM([A2:A10],[B2:B10],[C2:C10],[D2:D10])";
var reg = /\[.*?\]/g;
matches = formula.match(reg);

Upvotes: 3

Has QUIT--Anony-Mousse
Has QUIT--Anony-Mousse

Reputation: 77454

Your regexp doesn't include the colon :.

Try this: /\[([0-9A-Z:]+)\]/ , in particular why I have quoted and unquoted square brackets there.

Plus, your input string isn't quoted.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions