Is it possible to extend the range of a regex meta character?

Question

I am working with js (javascript) regex literal expressions but I guess the answer applies to all regex in some form.

I simply want to know if it is possible to do this: /\w+[more characters]/g

(please disregard the incorrect expression, it is for illustration only)

or are we locked in the finality of the meaning of meta-characters and if we what \w to hold more characters we have to write the entire range construct i.e. [a-Z...more characters]?

Since this is a yes/no question, I would appreciate examples to make this question of any use for future help.

Thanks.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 02 '15 at 10:32

2

You cannot change the coverage of \w, but you can use it within another class.

For example, [\wéà] is a shortcut for [a-zA-Z0-9_éà].

answered Apr 02 '15 at 10:32

sp00m

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Thank you for the quick answer. I set stribizhev as correct answer simply because there was more info. – micnolmad Apr 02 '15 at 10:50

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 02 '15 at 10:32

You can create your own character class like this:

 /[\wйцукенгшщз]+/g

And you will be able to catch not just 'a', 'b' through 'z', but also Cyrillic characters 'й', 'ц', etc.

Example (here, the last 'a' is Latin, the rest is Cyrillic):

var re = /[\wа-яА-ЯёЁ]+/; 
var str = 'Славa';
var m;
 
if ((m = re.exec(str)) !== null) {
    if (m.index === re.lastIndex) {
        re.lastIndex++;
    }
    alert(m[0]);
}

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 02 '15 at 10:42

1

The answer is yes, for example :

[\w\$\€]

will match \w + the 2 extra characters $ and €. This is equivalent to :

[a-zA-Z0-9_\$\€]

answered Apr 02 '15 at 10:42

Ben

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Thank you for the quick answer. I set stribizhev as correct answer simply because there was more info. – micnolmad Apr 02 '15 at 10:50

Is it possible to extend the range of a regex meta character?

3 Answers3