adding references to an array from a user input string

Question

How can I get the reference directly after a matched word including the matched word in regex

Example

var refArray = [];
var str = "matt 25:5 hello foo bar matt 5:10"; // unknown information
var pattern = "matt"; // looped through an object to get pattern

var regex = new RegExp(pattern,"gi");
var matches = str.match(regex); // check for any name matches 

if(matches){
    /*
        This is where I get stuck
        Get the numbers right after each match 
        and place both name and number into a variable AKA. result
    */
    refArray.push($result);
}
// The refArray should output [matt 25:5, matt 5:10]

Thank You for your help it is appreciated

EDIT

EDIT

This is the Regex I came up with located here

I am trying to match all possible references

matt
matt 5
matt 5, 6, 7
matt 5:5
matt 5:5-10
matt 5:5-10, 16,
matt 5:5-10, 16-20, 18-20
matt 5-6

And according to the site I am, but when I paste the code into my page it still only comes up with the name.

The Regex is...

(matt( \d*(\:\d*)?(\-\d*)?((, (\d*\-)?\d*)?)+)?(?!\w))

what am I doing wrong?

I would start with using the correct variable names, it's `pattern`, not `$pattern` ? — adeneo, Jan 18 '14 at 00:55
+1 lol, this is just an example, not my actual code. Been between php and js all day. I'll edit. Thanks — Juan Gonzales, Jan 18 '14 at 00:59
Using this Regex should match the scripture references completely if they follow the pattern you provided: (matt \d*:\d*) The parentheses constitute a capturing group so you should be able to easily access the result. See a topic on that here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/432493/how-do-you-access-the-matched-groups-in-a-javascript-regex Also, see this regexr example: http://regexr.com?381t3 — Harvey A. Ramer, Jan 18 '14 at 01:20
This looks promising @HarveyA.Ramer but do you have a regex that could catch all scripture possibilities? Matt - Matt 5 - or Matt 5:10 — Juan Gonzales, Jan 18 '14 at 01:48
@JuanGonzales do you want to match all possible books of the Bible? I think this gets close: `(\w*(?= \d) \d*(:)?(\d*)?)` But to match all the books of the Bible without any numeric reference, you would need to pattern match based on an array of names, I think. There are other problems with this RegEx. It assumes that a number is a chapter reference, and there could be other numbers in your text. Probably starting with a list of the books to match against would be best. You can see it and test its shortcomings at http://regexr.com?381tu — Harvey A. Ramer, Jan 18 '14 at 04:41
I am getting all the books by looping through an array of possible names — Juan Gonzales, Jan 18 '14 at 04:56
Also, I did start a file on regexr and it all matched very well on the site, but when I put it inside my js it didn't work — Juan Gonzales, Jan 18 '14 at 05:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 18 '14 at 00:59

I think this is what you want

var refArray = [];
var str = "matt 25:5 hello foo bar matt 5:10";
var pattern = "matt \\d+:\\d+";

var regex = new RegExp(pattern,"gi");
refArray = str.match(regex);

alert(refArray);
// The result is [matt 25:5, matt 5:10]

The document from Mozilla said that the function match returns array of string that match or return null is no string is matched.
It seem like you try to match string that string with matt and following by number:number. The regular expression to match this string should be matt \d+:\d+

This looks Awesome, but the only problem I have is that I have to get the name first. Im checking an object to see if the name exists within that object first, after I verify that then I need to add the digits behind the matched word. — Juan Gonzales, Jan 18 '14 at 01:10

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 18 '14 at 01:13

Here's a function that I use for this kind of regex matches. It takes a string, a regex with capturing groups, an a callback where you can access those groups. this is an object to assign matches, and return this outputs that object:

function matchAll(str, regex, fn) {
  var result = [];
  str.replace(regex, function() {
    var args = [].slice.call(arguments, 1);
    result.push(fn.apply([], args));
  });
  return result;
}

var str = 'matt 25:5 hello foo bar matt 5:10';
var name = 'matt';
var regex = RegExp('('+ name +') (\\d+:\\d+)', 'gi');

var result = matchAll(str, regex, function(name, number) {
  this.push(name, number);
  return this;
});
//^
// [
//   ['matt', '25:5']
//   ['matt', '5:10']
// ]

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 21 '14 at 01:41

Okay after days of working on it, I found my own solution... Thanks for the help...

var pattern = '([0-9][ ]|[0-9]?)([a-z]+)([.]?[ ]?)((([0-9]{1,3})(:[0-9{1,3}](-[0-9]{1,3})*)*([-, ?])*)+)';
var rxref = new RegExp(pattern, "gi");
var refArray = str.match(rxref); // get the match with digits and put them inside an array

adding references to an array from a user input string

3 Answers3