Retrieving Date from a URL string in Javascript/jQuery

Question

I have a WordPress site, and am using AJAX to update the archive rather than page reloads (in very basic terms).

So I can either be passing:

http://mysite.com/events/2012/10/17
http://mysite.com/events/2012/10
http://mysite.com/events/2012

I am looking for a JS/jQuery regex method that will retrieve any of these. So far I have the following:

var linkUrl = 'http://mysite.com/events/2012/10';
var linkDate = linkUrl.match(/\d{4}(\/\d{2})+/);
console.log( linkDate ); // output - ["2012/10", "/10", index: 8, input: "/events/2012/10"]

It appears that it's finding 2 matches, the second of which is not what I want. I'm sure it's a simple thing in my regex.

This is clearly example code. In your actual code, is the url in an <a> element that's being clicked? — user2437417
– user2437417, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 13:20
Did you check this question: stackoverflow.com/questions/4478426/… ? — Jonathan Naguin
– Jonathan Naguin, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 13:25
@CrazyTrain yes this is example code, the linkUrl is being populated by $(this).attr('href') which is essentially giving me what I have displayed above. — Eric Holmes
– Eric Holmes, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 13:27
@JonathanNaguin I didn't, and it is definitely helpful, however this expression is a little more advanced than /\d{4}\/\d{2}\/\d{2}/ as that ALWAYS looks for day only, not monthly. I discovered the solution - posted below. — Eric Holmes
– Eric Holmes, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 13:32
Why do you care how many matches it returns? Just use linkDate[0]. — georg
– georg, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 13:33

dfsq · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-26 13:33:24Z

2

I would try this regexp /(\d{4})(?:\/(\d{2}))?(?:\/(\d{2}))?$/:

'http://mysite.com/events/2012'.match(/(\d{4})(?:\/(\d{2}))?(?:\/(\d{2}))?$/)
// => ["2012", "2012", undefined, undefined]

'http://mysite.com/events/2012/03'.match(/(\d{4})(?:\/(\d{2}))?(?:\/(\d{2}))?$/)
// => ["2012/03", "2012", "03", undefined]

'http://mysite.com/events/2012/03/21'.match(/(\d{4})(?:\/(\d{2}))?(?:\/(\d{2}))?$/)
// => ["2012/03/21", "2012", "03", "21"]

answered Jun 26, 2013 at 13:33

dfsq

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5 Comments

Eric Holmes Over a year ago

Thanks for the reply, @dfsq. Yours would work, but it looks kind of messy to me (too many brackets). see my answer for the most efficient method.

georg Over a year ago

@EricHolmes: your "too many brackets" sounds just like the "too many notes" anecdote. Believe it or not, every one of them is necessary.

Eric Holmes Over a year ago

@thg435 Actually, they arent. See how his results have 03 and 21, and undefined ? That is because the nested brackets (while not necessary) are creating a sub-pattern capture that is not being ignored. Mine is cleaner, more efficient, and properly blocking out subpatterns.

dfsq Over a year ago

Maybe I misunderstood, but I can't see how your regexp can possibly help: 'http://mysite.com/events/2012'.match(/\d{4}(?:\/\d{2})+/) => null. 'http://mysite.com/events/2012/02'.match(/\d{4}(?:\/\d{2})+/) => ["2012/02"]. To me it does not look very helpful. But as long as it works for you, great!

Eric Holmes Over a year ago

Good point - my situation always deals with at LEAST monthly archives. It should be this - /\d{4}(?:\/\d{2})*/. (updating answer)

tkanzakic · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-26 13:53:22Z

0

Try this.

(?<=/)[0-9]{4}(/[0-9]{1,2})?(/[0-9]{1,2})?

edited Jun 26, 2013 at 13:53

tkanzakic

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answered Jun 26, 2013 at 13:35

user2524331

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Comments

Eric Holmes · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-26 14:10:31Z

0

So I have discovered the solution within my lovely O'Reilly Regular Expression book.

after looking at my regex again, I realized that the month[and day] expression is surrounded by brackets, which apparently means to capture the subpattern. The solution was this.

var linkUrl = "/events/2012/10/25";
var linkDate = linkUrl.match(/\d{4}(?:\/\d{2})*/);
// output - ["2012/10/25", index: 8, input: "/events/2012/10/25"]

I added ?: within the brackets, which tells match to not capture the substring. Now I receive 2012/10/17 or 2012/10 respectvely, depending on the URL.

Also notice the single value being returned, due to properly excluding subpatterns.

edited Jun 26, 2013 at 14:10

answered Jun 26, 2013 at 13:30

Eric Holmes

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