Matching list symbols in regex (angular 2)

Question

I am trying to match the list of symbols in regex but somehow the result is always returning with errors

symbol list = !@#$+*{}?<>&’”[]=%^

    if (text.match('^[\[\]\!\"\#\$\%\&\'\(\)\*\+\,\/\<\>\=\?\@\[\]\{\}\\\\\^\_\`\~]+$')) { 
      this.specialChar = true;
    } else {
      this.specialChar = false;
    }

I am getting the following error:

Invalid regular expression: /^[[]!"#$%&'()*+,/<>=?@[]{}\\^_`~]+$/: Nothing to repeat

How do I correctly match the symbols in regex? basically I want to check if text contain any of those symbols.

I see a string, not a regular expression. I would expect to see `...match(/^...../)` — epascarello, Oct 22 '18 at 17:05
least one of them so if text = 'some text + sometext' the expression should return true since '+' was in the text — logger, Oct 22 '18 at 17:07
In your string literal, all backlashes that do not form a valid escape sequence with the subsequent char get removed. You need to double escape them, or better use a *regex literal*. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Oct 22 '18 at 17:10

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 22 '18 at 17:08

You should use this regex constructor instead:

   if (text.match(/^[\[\]\!\"\#\$\%\&\'\(\)\*\+\,\/\<\>\=\?\@\[\]\{\}\\\\\^\_\`\~]+$/)) { 
      this.specialChar = true;
    } else {
      this.specialChar = false;
    }

The reason it fails is that you use a regex string constructor. If you still want to do that, you need to DOUBLE escape the characters, like this:

if (text.match('^[\\[\\]\\!\\"\\#\\$\\%\\&\\'\\(\\)\\*\\+\\,\\/\\<\\>\\=\\?\\@\\[\\]\\{\\}\\\\\\^\\_\\`\\~]+$')) {

Now you will create a valid regex.

Matching list symbols in regex (angular 2)

1 Answers1