RegEx to replace simple abbreviations

Question

I would like to replace each abbreviation like this: e.g.. That means one character, one dot, one character and one dot. Leading and trailing space. But this is not working:

str.replace(new RegExp('\s([A-z]\.[A-z]\.)\s', 'g'), 'abbreviation<$1>')

Example

Lorem e.g. ipsum

Should get

Lorem abbreviation<e.g.> ipsum

`[A-z]` doesn't match what you think: the ASCII range from uppercase letters to lowercase includes some non-letter characters too. Try `[A-Za-z]`, or the ignore case option. — Brian Stephens, Dec 09 '16 at 18:31

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 09 '16 at 18:37

2

[A-z] doesn't match what you think: the ASCII range from uppercase letters to lowercase includes some non-letter characters too. Try [A-Za-z], or the ignore case option:

console.log("Lorem e.g. ipsum".replace(/\s([a-z]\.[a-z]\.)\s/gi, ' abbreviation<$1> '))

edited Dec 09 '16 at 18:37

mplungjan

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answered Dec 09 '16 at 18:34

Brian Stephens

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Sagi_Avinash_Varma · Answer 2 · 2016-12-09T18:37:40.647

0

in new Regexp syntax the string argument should have escaped slashes.

str.replace(new RegExp('\\s([A-Za-z]\\.[A-Za-z]\\.)\\s', 'g'), ' abbreviation<$1>')

edited Dec 09 '16 at 18:37

answered Dec 09 '16 at 18:31

Sagi_Avinash_Varma

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@mplungjan [A-z] is equivalent to [A-Za-z] as they form a continuos ASCII charecter range. Thats why it worked for me when i tested. notice that the z is small letter – Sagi_Avinash_Varma Dec 09 '16 at 18:35
See [*Why is this regex allowing a caret?*](http://stackoverflow.com/a/29771926/3832970) – Wiktor Stribiżew Dec 09 '16 at 18:36
@Sagi_Avinash_Varma: please check ASCII codes 91-96! Even if it happens to match this particular case, you should never use `[A-Za-z]` to match letters only. – Brian Stephens Dec 09 '16 at 18:36

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 09 '16 at 18:41

Sounds like you want to do a bunch, so I'd define an array of objects like this.

var str = 'The FBI and NASA work for the US government'
var abbr = [
    { 
        short: 'FBI',
        long: 'Federal Bureau of Investigation'
    },
    { 
        short: 'NASA',
        long: 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration'
    },
    {
        short: 'US',
        long: 'United States'
    }
];

Then loop over them and replace like this:

for (var a = 0; a < abbr.length; a++) {
    str = str.replace(abbr[a].short, abbr[a].short + ' (' + abbr[a].long + ')');
}

Then you can console.log(str) and you get

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) work for the US (United States) government

RegEx to replace simple abbreviations

3 Answers3