JavaScript - Regex, is there a marker for any string?

Question

str.replace(/\w*(\ || --> A marker whitch can represent any char or string? <-- || )/g, function() {return "(" + arguments[0] + ")"})

This question is related to OP's [previous question](http://stackoverflow.com/q/15042565/1169519). — Teemu, Feb 24 '13 at 11:09

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '13 at 20:14

5

The dot (.) matches any (1) character; .+ matches a string of at least length 1, .* matches a string of at least length 0.

answered Feb 23 '13 at 20:14

robertklep

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Guffa · Answer 2 · 2013-02-23T20:30:38.410

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A period is used to represent any character that is not a line break, but to represent any character you can use a set with two complementing sets, like all alphanumeric characters and all non-alphanumeric characters:

str = str.replace(/\w*([\W\w])/g, "($1)");

That will match a single character, if you want to match more than one you have to specify how many. [\W\w]{1,3} would for example match one to three characters. [\W\w]+ would match everything to the end of the string.

Note that you don't need a callback for a simple replacement like this, just a string where $1 is substituted with the first caught value.

Edit:
Come to think of it, as the character is following a set that matches alphanumeric characters, it has to be non-alphanumeric, so just \W will do:

    str = str.replace(/\w*(\W)/g, "($1)");

edited Feb 23 '13 at 20:30

answered Feb 23 '13 at 20:14

Guffa

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@FreezyIze: When I try it, I get exactly the expected output. Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/EaJSq/1/ – Guffa Feb 23 '13 at 20:21
Good answer, but it doesn't search for "any string". – Freezy Ize Feb 23 '13 at 20:38
Please try out the answer above – Freezy Ize Feb 23 '13 at 20:39
@FreezyIze: That does the same, except it doesn't work for *all* characters. I already covered that in the first sentence of my answer. – Guffa Feb 23 '13 at 20:55

JavaScript - Regex, is there a marker for any string?

2 Answers2