Regex for finding all the numbers between any two numeric values (range) in JavaScript

Question

First of all, i know Regular expressions isn't the best tool to achieve what I want here. I have done enough research to know that bit. Still, The problem I am stuck in requires me to make up a regex to find the values between some lower and upper bound values.

So here is the problem, I have a large set of data, let's say ranging between 1 and 1000000. That data is not under my direct control, I cannot manipulate the data directly. Only way of finding out (searching) some values from that data is regex.. Now, the user can give two values, a minimum value and a maximum value and I need to construct a regex based on these two values and then query the large data set using the regex to get all the values lying between the set range. So, if my data contains [1,5,7,9,15,30,45,87] and user sets the range min:10, max:40. The regex should filter out values 15, 30.

From whatever I have searched, I know it is very much possible to build a regex for finding out values between fixed values (if we know them beforehand) for example, values between 1 to 100 can be found by:

^(100|[1-9][0-9]?)$

But what gets so tricky about my problem is that the input range can be anything from pretty much 1 digit values to up to 10 digit values. 10000-550000 can be an example user input for a large data set.

I know this will require some complex logic and loops involved on the basis of number of digits in the lower bound and number of digits in the upper bound of the range and then some recursive or other magical logic to build a regex that covers all the number lying in that range.

I've been filling up pages to come up with a logic but I'm afraid it surpasses my knowledge of regex. If anyone has ever done something like this before or try to point me in the right direction or attempt it him/herself - it'll be quite helpful. Thanks.

The language I will be using this in is JavaScript and I read somewhere that JS doesn't support conditional regex, keeping that in mind, solution doesn't have to be in specific to a language.

Can u do a range with groups. [(15)(30)] not sure if that works... — wbg, Feb 12 '16 at 06:08
Using phone and typos and accidental posts.. Shld be edited now. — wbg, Feb 12 '16 at 06:10
@Oleander no, i'm afraid not... that's what makes it so challenging. Only way to query data is through regex — Abdul Jabbar, Feb 12 '16 at 06:11
@wbg Sorry, I didn't get what you mean by range with groups.. — Abdul Jabbar, Feb 12 '16 at 06:12
Would it be possible to hard code all numbers in the regexp, like /\b100\b|\b101\b|\b102\b/ and so on — Linus Oleander, Feb 12 '16 at 06:13
@Oleander It has to be something like this but writing each and every number won't do because of how large range can be... (upto 10 digits), It should be something like 100, [100-1000], [1000-10000],[10000-11250],11251.... — Abdul Jabbar, Feb 12 '16 at 06:16
@ashfaq.p It's probably an external API that only accepts regex. — Linus Oleander, Feb 12 '16 at 06:18
@hallucinations Oh boy, I have no idea how i didn't find that question before... Yes, that's pretty much what I was asking.. — Abdul Jabbar, Feb 12 '16 at 06:24
My idea is prolly dumb. Is it possible to use JavaScript function to make a range of numbers cast to strings, then use a range [] of grouped digits ()? — wbg, Feb 12 '16 at 06:25
In python I might try pattern="|".join(range(30,100000)) re.find_all(pattern, text) — wbg, Feb 12 '16 at 06:32

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 12 '16 at 06:14

-1

If your task is to get numbers between min and max value from the dataset, you can try filter method.

Var filteredResults = Dataset.filter(function(item){
      If(item < max && item > min)
          Return item
 }
 )

answered Feb 12 '16 at 06:14

ashfaq.p

5,379
21
35

Read the whole question. -1 – Linus Oleander Feb 12 '16 at 06:17
Unfortunately, the only way to query data is through regex.. – Abdul Jabbar Feb 12 '16 at 06:17
Could you please remove your answer? – Linus Oleander Feb 12 '16 at 06:43

Regex for finding all the numbers between any two numeric values (range) in JavaScript

1 Answers1