Is there an easy way to return all words from string?

Question

Is there a way to return all words in a given string? The best solution I have currently found is using the match method and returning any string with at least one non-whitespace char (/\S+/g).

The issue with this method is that it includes a comma, period, etc. in the word. If I try using a RegExp with \w, then it doesn't include periods and commas, but it makes "don't" two words because of the '.

Is there any true and easy solution to this issue?

For example: "I don't want to go, mom". This should return the words [I, don't, want, to, go, mom]

What sorts of words including commas would you want to include, that wouldn't count as two separate words instead? I suppose for periods you're thinking of abbreviations like `U.S.` or something like that? — CertainPerformance, Mar 13 '21 at 16:30
Does this answer your question? [JavaScript break sentence by words](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18473326/javascript-break-sentence-by-words) — Alexander Hemming, Mar 13 '21 at 16:31
@AlexanderHemming No. All the solutions have flaws I spoke about in my post. — user737163, Mar 13 '21 at 16:32
Generally, you'll need to first list, how you want to treat all the edge cases. The issue with this is, that you just say "do it right", but probably didn't consider a lot of rather difficult edge-cases. Speaking of those, "edge-cases" includes a hyphen. Are those two words? One? — ASDFGerte, Mar 13 '21 at 16:35
Please elaborate on what sorts of words with commas you want to permit. I don't think there's a good way to separate out words that end with a `.` from words that are at the end of a sentence, eg `Dr.` — CertainPerformance, Mar 13 '21 at 16:35
What is the problem with separating by only the spaces with he split method? it will not make "don't" "don" + "'t" — Alexander Hemming, Mar 13 '21 at 16:36
@AlexanderHemming It will count spaces as a word if you have newlines etc. — user737163, Mar 13 '21 at 16:37
I once did something like this, not remembering all steps. I first replaced all `,` with space, then replaced all "period followed by space" `. ` After that used `str.split(" ")` to get the words — kiranvj, Mar 13 '21 at 16:40

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 13 '21 at 16:56

4

Would this work?

mystr.replace(".","").split(/\s/g);

I would have commented, but I don't have 50 rep

answered Mar 13 '21 at 16:56

Joseph Kreifels II

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Vishnudev Krishnadas · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-13T16:45:13.450

2

Use word boundaries in regex and match function

const matches = "I don't want to go, mom.".match(/(\b[^\s]+\b)/g);

console.log(matches);

edited Mar 13 '21 at 16:45

answered Mar 13 '21 at 16:40

Vishnudev Krishnadas

10,679
2
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This is something I was looking for! Thank you! @Vishundev – user737163 Mar 13 '21 at 16:43
This will not match words that end in periods or apostrophes – CertainPerformance Mar 13 '21 at 16:44
@CertainPerformance I just tested it and it does? Am I missing something? – user737163 Mar 13 '21 at 16:45
Yes, it does. @CertainPerformance Can you give an example? – Vishnudev Krishnadas Mar 13 '21 at 16:45
"A lot of suburbs' houses are large" - where did the apostrophe go? PS: I am unsure, what the intended solution is, but i was already in the comments above, so maybe it is exactly, what OP wanted. – ASDFGerte Mar 13 '21 at 16:45
It doesn't match `Dr.`, but `Dr`. It also doesn't match the apostrophe in `Employees' records` – CertainPerformance Mar 13 '21 at 16:46
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@ASDFGerte That is true. For my task, this does exactly what it needs to though so I'm happy. It is also the best start if you want to add those functionalities too, from what I've seen so far. – user737163 Mar 13 '21 at 16:47

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 13 '21 at 16:54

I don't know if this is exactly what are you looking for but... Using just the example string you've provided this worked:

myString = "I don't want to go, mom"
wordsArray = []
myString = myString.replace(',', '')
wordsArray = myString.split(' ')
console.log({wordsArray})

But be ware that you have so much additional cases:

"two-handed" there is one or two words? ['two', 'handed'], ['two-handed'] or ['twohanded']

"Mrs. Foo", "Dr. bar"... expecting: ['Mrs', 'Foo'], ['Mrs. Foo'], ['Mrs.Foo'], ['MrsFoo'] ?

I'll appreciate any feedback.

Is there an easy way to return all words from string?

3 Answers3