Validate HTML entities in JavaScript

Question

I have a small JavaScript validation script that validates inputs based on Regex. I want to allow certain characters that are not exactly common (not sure if they're UTF8). For example I want to allow the following character ’, which looks like a single quote, but isn't.

I got the HTML code for this which is ’, but I'm not sure how to put this into the Regex.

I've tried just inputting [&#8217]* but it doesn't validate.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 19 '12 at 23:02

2

How about

/[\u2019]/

It uses the actual character rather than the html entity. 2019 is hex for 8217₁₀

http://jsfiddle.net/eV2ek/

answered Oct 19 '12 at 23:02

Musa

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Right on! Worked perfectly :) Thanks! – Eduard Luca Oct 19 '12 at 23:06

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '12 at 23:43

1

As long as you properly tag encoding of your JavaScript (or its holding page if it is inline) either through charset attribute or Content-Type header, you can just use any character that doesn't have special meaning in regexp just by typing it there literally:

/’/

answered Oct 19 '12 at 23:43

Oleg V. Volkov

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I've thought of that, but the problem is that if I open it with an editor/IDE that doesn't support "special" characters (like I'm *guessing* `nano`), this character might be lost/replaced. – Eduard Luca Oct 20 '12 at 01:02
Yes, using character code is most bulletproof, but I find it hard to believe that any actively updated editor (and `nano`, as I remember, is) doesn't support UTF-8. – Oleg V. Volkov Oct 20 '12 at 12:28

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

0

Alternative of ’ or ’ in regex in most of environments is

\u2019

however in Perl and PCRE \u is not supported , but \x syntax instead

\x2019

as 2019 is hex of decimal 8217.

Regarding unicode with regex in Javascript read: Javascript + Unicode regexes

edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

Community

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answered Oct 19 '12 at 22:59

Ωmega

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Validate HTML entities in JavaScript

3 Answers3