How to exclude a word with JavaScript using regular expressions?

Question

I am new using regular expression and I was wondering if it is possible to exclude a word. I have the following list of data:

cat.text"
cat.doc"
dog.txt"
dog.text"
frog.txt"
dog.text"
dog.  text"
cat. text"
cat. text "

From this data, I want to get only the .text" (or . text ", or .text ", etc.) part but I don't want to include the .text" from any item that contains cat. So far, I am able to get all the .text" but not sure how to exclude the ones with cat word. I have so far \.\s*text\s*" and it gets

cat.text"  <--
cat.doc"
dog.txt"
dog.text"   <--
frog.txt"
dog.text"   <--
dog.  text"  <--
cat. text"    <--
cat. text "   <--

Any help? Thanks!

how about /^(?!cat).*text$/?

mido
– mido

2016-05-12 01:34:53 +00:00
Commented May 12, 2016 at 1:34 — mido
– mido, Commented May 12, 2016 at 1:34

timolawl · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-12 02:29:33Z

4

I am able to get all the .text" but not sure how to exclude the ones with "cat" word.

You can use the following regex:

/^(?!cat).*\.\s*text/m

If you want the match to not take letter case into account, you can add the case-insensitive i flag at the end (e.g., mi).

Explanation:

^       // assert position at start of a line (with the multiline 'm' flag)
(?!cat) // negative lookahead to prevent matching if line starts with cat
.*      // match any number of characters excluding linebreak characters
\.      // match "." literally
\s*     // match any number of whitespace characters
text    // match "text" literally
        // flags: 
        // "m" - multiline, matches on a per line basis)

Regex101

Edit: If you want to match the suffix tag with the ending quote, you can use this:

/^(?!cat).*(\.\s*text\s*\")/m

Regex101

Notice the match information on the right in the Regex101. The () captures the match to output, assuming the proper use of string/regex methods.

Example of how to extract the captured group using String.prototype.match:

var strArr = [ 'cat.text"',
'cat.doc"',
'dog.txt"',
'dog.text"',
'frog.txt"',
'dog.text"',
'dog.  text"',
'cat. text"',
'cat. text "',
'dogtext',
'textexttext'];

var re = /^(?!cat).*(\.\s*text\s*\")/mi;

var testDiv = document.querySelector('.testString');
var resultDiv = document.querySelector('.resultString');

strArr.forEach(function(str) {
  testDiv.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', str + '<br>');
  if (str.match(re))
    resultDiv.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', str.match(re)[1] + '<br>');
  else resultDiv.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', '<br>');
});

.testString {
  display: inline-block;
}

.resultString {
  display: inline-block;
  position: relative;
  left: 10%;
}

<div class='testString'></div>
<div class='resultString'></div>

I removed the g flag when using string.prototype.match as you want the captured groups. Using the g flag returns the entire match string.

edited May 12, 2016 at 2:29

answered May 12, 2016 at 1:33

timolawl

5,56415 silver badges31 bronze badges

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

5 Comments

zancudo Over a year ago

hi @timolawl, thanks for your answer!. This solution is in the right direction! I would like to get only the .text" . text" . text " . If I use /^(?!cat).*\.\s*text"/gm I get the dog.text" for example. Is it possible to only get the .text" from the result of your regexp? Thanks in advance

timolawl Over a year ago

@zancudo Just to clarify, you want to match the extension with the ending quote? I'll update my answer. Give me a moment.

timolawl Over a year ago

If there's no ending quote, you can just remove the \" in the updated regex above.

zancudo Over a year ago

Thanks for your information @timolawl. Sorry that I edited my comment after you posted you answer again. I was wondering if it is possible to only get the .text" part from the result of your regexp? I mean that instead of get dog.text" for example, I can only get the .text" part of each item that matches in your result?

timolawl Over a year ago

You should be able to use string.prototype.match to get the captured group. I'll update my answer to show you what I mean.

Jan Paolo Go · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-12 01:32:54Z

0

you can do something like this...

split the string into two parts
use one of the parts to check if you'll exclude (or include) that
return the other part (or both if you want)

answered May 12, 2016 at 1:32

Jan Paolo Go

6,6924 gold badges30 silver badges59 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to exclude a word with JavaScript using regular expressions?

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related