JavaScript text between double quotes

Question

I would like to get the text between double quotes using JavaScript. I found online something like title.match(/".*?"/); but the thing is that sometimes I have text between double quotes but sometimes there are no quotes. What I am saying is that sometimes I receive strings like: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum and sometimes strings like: Neque "porro quisquam est" qui dolorem ipsum. The thing is, when I have text containing double quotes I want to retrieve the text between them but when they aren't present, I'd like the whole text. Also I have observered that string.indexOf("\"") does not work and I don't really know how to approach this problem. Thanks.

score 44 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 30 '21 at 11:47

Try:

<script>
let str1 = 'Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum';
let str2 = 'Neque "porro quisquam est" qui dolorem ipsum';
let str3 = 'Neque "porro';
let str4 = 'Neque "porro" quisquam "est" qui dolorem ipsum';

function extractFirstText(str){
  const matches = str.match(/"(.*?)"/);
  return console.log(matches
    ? matches[1]
    : str);
}


function extractAllText(str){
  const re = /"(.*?)"/g;
  const result = [];
  let current;
  while (current = re.exec(str)) {
    result.push(current.pop());
  }
  return console.log(result.length > 0
    ? result
    : [str]);
}

// Execution of the functions

extractFirstText(str1);
//Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum

extractFirstText(str2);
//porro quisquam est

extractFirstText(str3);
//Neque "porro

extractFirstText(str4);
//porro

extractAllText(str1);
//Array [ "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum" ]

extractAllText(str2);
//Array [ "porro quisquam est" ]

extractAllText(str3);
//Array [ "Neque \"porro" ]

extractAllText(str4);
//Array [ "porro", "est" ]
</script>

EDIT reworked to take into account both @AshishMaity comment in a discarded edit about matching more than one substring, and @JosephCho comment about the original breaking in case there is a single quote (str3 in the case above)

This solution tosses an error if there is only one quotation mark! Is there a more robust solution? — Joseph Cho, Jun 22 '18 at 20:49

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 05 '13 at 16:05

19

try it with this one:

/"((?:\\.|[^"\\])*)"/

Regular expression visualization

Debuggex Demo

answered Nov 05 '13 at 16:05

bukart

4,906
2
21
40

anubhava · Answer 3 · 2013-11-05T16:32:32.557

10

In a single regex:

var m = s.match(/(?:"[^"]*"|^[^"]*$)/)[0].replace(/"/g, "");

TEST:

s = 'Neque "porro quisquam est" qui dolorem ipsum';
m = s.match(/(?:"[^"]*"|^[^"]*$)/)[0].replace(/"/g, "");
//=> porro quisquam est

s = 'Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum';
m = s.match(/(?:"[^"]*"|^[^"]*$)/)[0].replace(/"/g, "");
//=> Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum

edited Nov 05 '13 at 16:32

answered Nov 05 '13 at 16:08

anubhava

761,203
64
569
643

yeah, it works like a charm but I want the text without the " " .. any idea on how the regex should be modified in order to get rid of the " " ? – Teo Nov 05 '13 at 16:12
1

`match(/"([^"]*)"$/)[1]` – snewcomer Jul 14 '21 at 18:09

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 27 '18 at 11:52

split() function can be used get value in double quote

let str1 = 'Neque "porro quisquam est" qui dolorem ipsum';
let str2 = 'Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum';

function findFirstOccurance(str){
  const matches = str.split('"');
  return matches[1] ? matches[1] : str;
}


console.log(findFirstOccurance(str1));
console.log(findFirstOccurance(str2));

JavaScript text between double quotes

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