Why does this javascript regex literal not work?

Question

function fuzzQuery(rawQuery)
{
    re = /(?=[\(\) ])|(?<=[\(\) ])/;    

    strSplit = rawQuery.split(re);

    alert(strSplit);
};

Does not work (no dialog box).

I've check the expression at http://rubular.com/ and it works as intended.

Whereas

re = /e/

does work.

The input string is

hello:(world one two three)

The expected result is:

hello:,(,world, ,one, ,two, ,three, )

I have looked at the following SO questions:

Javascript simple regexp doesn't work

Why this javascript regex doesn't work?

Javascript regex not working

Javascript RegEx Not Working

But I'm not making the mistakes like creating the expression as a string, or not double backslashing when it is a string.

javascript regex does not support lookbehind.. maybe an alternative here.. stackoverflow.com/questions/7376238/… — Bryan Elliott
– Bryan Elliott, Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 5:15

hwnd · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-16 05:46:27Z

4

Well the main issue with your regular expression is that javascript does not support Lookbehind.

re = /(?=[\(\) ])|(?<=[\(\) ])/
                   ^^^ A problem...

Instead, you could possibly use an alternative:

re       = /(?=[() ])|(?=[^\W])\b/;
strSplit = rawQuery.split(re);
console.log(strSplit);

// [ 'hello:', '(', 'world', ' ', 'one', ' ', 'two', ' ', 'three', ')' ]

edited Jan 16, 2014 at 5:46

answered Jan 16, 2014 at 5:13

hwnd

70.9k4 gold badges100 silver badges135 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

dwjohnston Over a year ago

Lame. Any suggestions?

hwnd Over a year ago

@dwjohnston I added a possible alternative.

Sujith PS · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-16 05:23:12Z

0

You can use something like this :

re = /((?=\(\) ))|((?=[\(\) ]))./;    

    strSplit = rawQuery.split(re);

    console.log(strSplit);

answered Jan 16, 2014 at 5:23

Sujith PS

4,8643 gold badges38 silver badges61 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Why does this javascript regex literal not work?

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related