Javascript Regex Splitting Words in a Comma Separated String
I Am Trying to Split a Comma Separated String Using Regex. Var a = 'Hi, Mr.007, Bond,12:25Pm'; //There Are No White Spaces Between Commas Var B = /(\S+?), (?...
I am trying to split a comma separated string using regex.
var a = 'hi,mr.007,bond,12:25PM'; //there are no white spaces between commas
var b = /(\S+?),(?=\S|$)/g;
b.exec(a); // does not catch the last item.
Any suggestion to catch all the items.
3 Answers
Use a negated character class:
/([^,]+)/g
will match groups of non-commas.
< a = 'hi,mr.007,bond,12:25PM'
> "hi,mr.007,bond,12:25PM"
< b=/([^,]+)/g
> /([^,]+)/g
< a.match(b)
> ["hi", "mr.007", "bond", "12:25PM"]
Why not just use .split?
>'hi,mr.007,bond,12:25PM'.split(',')
["hi", "mr.007", "bond", "12:25PM"]
If you must use regex for some reason:
str.match(/(\S+?)(?:,|$)/g)
["hi,", "mr.007,", "bond,", "12:25PM"]
(note the inclusion of commas).
If you are passing a CSV file, some of your values may have got double-quotes around them, so you may need something a little more complicated. For example:
Pattern splitCommas = java.util.regex.Pattern.compile("(?:^|,)((?:[^\",]|\"[^\"]*\")*)");
Matcher m = splitCommas.matcher("11,=\"12,345\",ABC,,JKL");
while (m.find()) {
System.out.println( m.group(1));
}
or in Groovy:
java.util.regex.Pattern.compile('(?:^|,)((?:[^",]|"[^"]*")*)')
.matcher("11,=\"12,345\",ABC,,JKL")
.iterator()
.collect { it[1] }
This code handles:
- blank lines (with no values or commas on them)
- empty columns, including the last column being empty
- handles values wrapped in double-quotes, including commas inside the double-quotes
- but does not handle two double-quotes used for escaping a double quote-itself
The pattern consists of:
(?:^|,)matches the start of the line or a comma after the last column, but does not add that to the group((?:[^",]|"[^"]*")*)matches the value of the column, and consists of:a collecting group, which collects zero or more characters that are:
[^",]is a character that's not a comma or a quote"[^"]*"is a double-quote followed by zero or more other characters ending in another double-quote
those are or-ed together, using a non-collecting group:
(?:[^",]|"[^"]*")- use a
*to repeat the above any number of times:(?:[^",]|"[^"]*")* - and into a collecting group to give the columns value:
((?:[^",]|"[^"]*")*)
Doing escaping of double quotes is left as an exercise to the reader
Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.
