Double bracket pattern search in string

Question

I have a regular expression to search in a string.

new RegExp("\\b"+searchText+"\\b", "i")

My strings:

"You are likely to find [[children]] in [[a school]]"
"[[school]] is for [[learning]]"

How can I search only the words in double brackets?

A regular expression should contain searchText as a function argument.

Can you please add your expected output more? give some examples — Just code, Oct 08 '18 at 05:06
so i'm trying to find a whole word (searchText) in brackets. — XTRUST.ORG, Oct 08 '18 at 05:28

Toastrackenigma · Answer 1 · 2018-10-08T05:15:53.633

4

This RegEx will give you the basics of what you want:

\[\[[^\]]*\]\]

\[\[ matches the two starting brackets. A bracket is a special character in RegEx, hence it must be escaped with \
[^\]]* is a negated set that matches zero or more of any character except a closing bracket. This matches the content in-between the brackets.
\]\] matches the two closing brackets.

Here's a very basic example of what you could do with this:

let string = "You are likely to find [[children]] in [[a school]]<br>[[school]] is for [[learning]]";

string = string.replace(/\[\[[^\]]*\]\]/g, x => `<mark>${x}</mark>`);

document.body.innerHTML = string;

edited Oct 08 '18 at 05:15

answered Oct 08 '18 at 05:08

Toastrackenigma

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Thanks! How could I add a searchText variable (function argument) to a regular expression? – XTRUST.ORG Oct 08 '18 at 05:34
You could just replace `[^\]]*` with `searchText`; *e.g*. `new RegExp("\[\[" + searchText + "\]\]", "g")`. – Toastrackenigma Oct 08 '18 at 05:48

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '18 at 05:14

3

You can use this regex:

var str = `-- You are likely to find [[children]] in [[a school]]
-- [[school]] is for [[learning]]`;
var regex = /(?<=(\[\[))([\w\s]*)(?=(\]\]))/gm;
var match = str.match(regex);
console.log(match);

answered Oct 08 '18 at 05:14

protoproto

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It's the class (`[...]`), if you need, you can add more to this! – protoproto Oct 08 '18 at 05:21
Check my answer. (`[ ...]`) is not a class – Piterden Oct 08 '18 at 05:22
Ah, `[...]` is called character set. Character class is `. /w /W /d /D /s /S ...` – protoproto Oct 08 '18 at 05:37
So when you need solve some issues, sovle what you need – Piterden Oct 08 '18 at 05:39
Thanks! How could I add a searchText variable (function argument) to a regular expression? – XTRUST.ORG Oct 08 '18 at 05:47
@user889349 See at here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4029109/javascript-regex-how-to-put-a-variable-inside-a-regular-expression – protoproto Oct 08 '18 at 05:50

Piterden · Answer 3 · 2018-10-08T05:36:57.707

1

const re = /(?<=\[\[)[^\]]+(?=]])/gm
const string = `-- You are likely to find [[children]] in [[a school]]
-- [[school]] is for [[learning]]`

console.log(string.match(re))

const replacement = {
  children: 'adults',
  'a school': 'a home',
  school: 'home',
  learning: 'rest',
}

console.log(string.split(/(?<=\[\[)[^\]]+(?=]])/).map((part, index) => part + (replacement[string.match(re)[index]] || '')).join(''))

edited Oct 08 '18 at 05:36

answered Oct 08 '18 at 05:18

Piterden

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https://github.com/Piterden/js-create-includes-webpack-plugin/blob/master/js-create-includes-webpack-plugin.js – Piterden Oct 08 '18 at 05:41

Double bracket pattern search in string

3 Answers3