Split a string based on multiple delimiters

Question

I was trying to split a string based on multiple delimiters by referring How split a string in jquery with multiple strings as separator

Since multiple delimiters I decided to follow

var separators = [' ', '+', '-', '(', ')', '*', '/', ':', '?'];
var tokens = x.split(new RegExp(separators.join('|'), 'g'));

But I'm getting error

Uncaught SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: / |+|-|(|)|*|/|:|?/: Nothing to repeat

How to solve it?

Look this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/650022/how-do-i-split-a-string-with-multiple-separators-in-javascript — SamYan, Oct 11 '13 at 08:26
Can anyone help me with this related question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19313874/add-space-in-the-string-before-and-after-certain-characters — Okky, Oct 11 '13 at 08:49

score 64 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:29

64

escape needed for regex related characters +,-,(,),*,?

var x = "adfds+fsdf-sdf";

var separators = [' ', '\\\+', '-', '\\\(', '\\\)', '\\*', '/', ':', '\\\?'];
console.log(separators.join('|'));
var tokens = x.split(new RegExp(separators.join('|'), 'g'));
console.log(tokens);

http://jsfiddle.net/cpdjZ/

answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:29

melc

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1

This works great! what exactly is `new RegExp(separators.join('|'), 'g')` doing here though? – HussienK Mar 18 '16 at 17:05
@HussienK enables alternation in the expression, look here http://www.regular-expressions.info/alternation.html – melc Mar 20 '16 at 13:00
2

Man. The RegEx. This is why I've taken so long to actually learn them. Why the heck does the + have three slashes in front, but the * have 2 slashes, and the :, / and space have none? – LJD Mar 08 '19 at 17:39

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:32

12

This should work:

var separators = [' ', '+', '(', ')', '*', '\\/', ':', '?', '-'];
var tokens = x.split(new RegExp('[' + separators.join('') + ']', 'g'));

Generated regex will be using regex character class: /[ +()*\/:?-]/g

This way you don't need to escape anything.

answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:32

anubhava

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Can you provide an example of var x? – anubhava Oct 11 '13 at 08:36
var arr = str.split(new RegExp('[|!=&+- ]', 'g'));- error – nim Jan 10 '15 at 15:39

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:34

The following would be an easier way of accomplishing the same thing.

var tokens = x.split(new RegExp('[-+()*/:? ]', 'g'));

Note that - must come first (or be escaped), otherwise it will think it is the range operator (e.g. a-z)

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:25

2

I think you would need to escape the +, * and ?, since they've got special meaning in most regex languages

answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:25

Friso

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:26

1

This is because characters like + and * have special meaning in Regex.

Change your join from | to |\ and you should be fine, escaping the literals.

answered Oct 11 '13 at 08:26

Roy Dictus

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I'm getting error when I changed it to |\ 'Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token ;' I think it is because when |\ is entered inside quote the quote is getting escaped. How to avoid that? – Okky Oct 11 '13 at 08:32

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 23 '20 at 16:43

If you want to split based in multiple regexes and dont want to write a big regex You could use replace and split. Like this:

const spliters = [
 /(\[products\])/g,
 /(\[link\])/g,
 /(\[llinks\])/g,
];
let newString = "aa [products] bb [link] [products] cc [llinks] dd";
spliters.forEach(regex => {
 newString = newString.replace(regex, match => `æææ${match}æææ`);
});
const mySplit = newString.split(/æææ([^æ]+)æææ/)
console.log(mySplit);

This works very well for my case.

Split a string based on multiple delimiters

6 Answers6

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