Remove all punctuation from string except for ' character

Question

Following this question How can I strip all punctuation from a string in JavaScript using regex? I'm trying to remove all punctuation from a string besides the ' character to avoid messing with words such as:

• wouldn't
• don't
• won't

So far I have tried the following:

return word.replace(/[^\w\s]|_\'/g, "")
          .replace(/\s+/g, " ");;

But it is still removing the ' character. Any idea how I can achieve such a result?

Answer 1

Move the escaped apostrophe to the excluded character class: /[^\w\s\']|_/g

Answer 2

Add the apostrophe to your regex like this, in the exclusion block:

const str = "This., -/is #! a ;: {} = - string$%^&* which `~)() doesn't, have any)( punctuation!";

const noPunctation = str.replace(/[^\w\s']|_/g, '').replace(/\s+/g, ' ');

console.log(noPunctation);