XRegExp: "Unmatched ')'" Yet everything appears to be balanced

Question

I've written the following line of code:

XRegExp.exec(data,
    XRegExp('<!-- @\[(?<component>[\w+])[\(*(?<classes>[\w+])*\)]*\] -->', 'g'))

As you can see it is using the XRegExp library so I can use named groups other PCRE features.

I'm getting the error:

syntaxError: Invalid regular expression: //: Unmatched ')'

However, I don't understand where the unmatched ) is. As far as I can tell, all brackets that need to be escaped should be and all the ones that shouldn't are not.

Here is the string I am trying to match:

these should also match:

This should not match:

UDPATE: Using Regex101 I've managed to get the regex to pass: I've updated the regex to '' however I'm still getting the same error.

Your regex looks very complicated to me. I suggest taking it apart in a regex editor until you can get something to work, then build it up. I see several problems, but I don't have a solution because I don't know XRegExp. — Tim Biegeleisen, Nov 06 '18 at 12:00
Make sure you escape your backslashes if you want them to remain a part of the regular expression — robertklep, Nov 06 '18 at 12:03
In `(?[\w+])[`, the last `[` is not escaped. It creates a character class. Besides, in a string literal, to define a backslash you need to double backslashes. Use `""` — Wiktor Stribiżew, Nov 06 '18 at 12:04
Thanks, Wiktor, that solved it. It's only finding the first match now but that's another problem :) — Alex Foxleigh, Nov 06 '18 at 12:13
Your updated regex doesn't match `` (and `` but maybe it's expected) — barbsan, Nov 06 '18 at 12:13
Good spot. It shouldn't match the latter but it does need to match the former, I forgot about that whilst trying to get the rest working, thanks, I'll fix it :) — Alex Foxleigh, Nov 06 '18 at 12:16

dotParx · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-06T19:25:02.533

1

I've updated my answer to meet the new information provided.

Given the example of what you're trying to capture the original regex won't match.

The following will match any characters between [( to component and anything between () to classes.

\w matches a word, digit, or underscore. This would leave it missing your [-,] characters

Hopefully this helps.

<!-- @\[(?<component>[\w]*)\((?<classes>.*?)\)*\] -->

@[Component(Classes - warning, highlevel)]

edited Nov 06 '18 at 19:25

answered Nov 06 '18 at 11:55

dotParx

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Small correction: '\w matches a word, digit' - not White Space. – Poul Bak Nov 06 '18 at 17:29
Thanks @PoulBak, I've modified mine to include underscore instead of whitespace. – dotParx Nov 06 '18 at 19:26

XRegExp: "Unmatched ')'" Yet everything appears to be balanced

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