jQuery: create regex pattern from variable

Question

I'm trying to create a regex pattern out of a variable like:

var tag = "style";
var pattern = "/<"+tag+"[^>]*>((\\n|.)*)<\\/"+tag+">/gi";

but it won't work - anyone can tell me what's wrong?

What are you trying to accomplish? There's probably a better way to find the html tag that you're looking for using jquery selectors. — James Kolpack, Mar 04 '10 at 00:44

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 04 '10 at 00:44

5

Use the RegExp object

var tag = "style";
var pattern = new RegExp("<"+tag+"[^>]*>((\\n|.)*)<\\/"+tag+">","gi");

answered Mar 04 '10 at 00:44

PetersenDidIt

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

1

In general, matching html tags with regex isn't a good idea. See explanation here.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

answered Mar 04 '10 at 00:43

James Kolpack

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 04 '10 at 00:46

0

var re = new RegExp(string) ..

answered Mar 04 '10 at 00:46

Scott Evernden

3 Answers3