How to generate a string containing forward slash with regular expression in javascript?

Question

I'm using the following Javascript to generate a String: /abc/.source. By running this code in console, it will return "abc".

Now I want to generate a string like "abc/".

I tried /abc\//.source but it returns "abc\/".

How can I achieve this WITHOUT using var reg = new RegExp("abc/");reg.source?

I'm carrying out some project that's sensitive to punctuations. — ethanjyx
– ethanjyx, Commented Oct 10, 2013 at 3:49
I don't understand what you mean by generating a string by creating a regex and inspecting its source property. The regex is created with a string, so if you have the string already, what is the source property lookup going to buy you? — Ray Toal
– Ray Toal, Commented Oct 10, 2013 at 3:50
I don't think what you're asking for is possible, and I definitely feel like you're abusing regex for something it wasn't meant for. — John Dvorak
– John Dvorak, Commented Oct 10, 2013 at 3:52
The point is that it returns a string without using quotation marks. — ethanjyx
– ethanjyx, Commented Oct 10, 2013 at 3:57

RobG · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-10 04:26:04Z

3

I think you misunderstand the source property:

Let S be a String in the form of a Pattern equivalent to P, in which certain characters are escaped as described below. S may or may not be identical to P or pattern; however, the internal procedure that would result from evaluating S as a Pattern must behave identically to the internal procedure given by the constructed object's [[Match]] internal property.

15.10.4.1 new RegExp(pattern, flags)

In other words, the source value must be able to be used as the string in a regular expression constructor:

var re = new RegExp( s.source );

Where the resulting expression must behave the same as the original when used in match.

So given that to match 'abc/' the required pattern is abc\/ then /abc\//.source must be abc\/.

And BTW:

(new RegExp('abc/')).source == 'abc\/';

answered Oct 10, 2013 at 4:26

RobG

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