Javascript: Simplified RegEx for non-expression into capturing group

Question

Trying to use a simplified RegEx to solve a little emoji replacement.

regex is: ((?!http)(\:\/))

context is: Hello there, don't goto <a href="http://x.com">x.com</a>, they have bad service :/

Still captures both ":/"s in the context. I know there's the bracket non-capturing character method, but I couldn't find any modernized / simplified version of something like this.

SGD · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-16T12:25:18.847

2

If you cannot use lookbehinds you may want to try and cleverly expand your match like I.e.

( :\/)

Note the extra space which could of course be something more sophisticated.

Update

(:\/)(?!\/)

did the trick by using a negative lookahead (which Javascript supports) for a /.

edited Apr 16 '15 at 12:25

answered Apr 15 '15 at 17:04

SGD

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Yeah problem with the space ahead is that it's too broad – Michael Mikhjian Apr 15 '15 at 17:06
How about \s for any whitespace character? – SGD Apr 15 '15 at 17:07
I was actually able to solve it by just including the non capturing expr afterwards for a secondary "/". – Michael Mikhjian Apr 15 '15 at 17:22

Javascript: Simplified RegEx for non-expression into capturing group

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