Repeating a regex pattern multiple times

Question

Using JavaScript regexes.

I'm trying to match blocks of text in the form:

$Label1: Text1
    Text1 possibly continues 
$Label2: Text2
$Label3: Text3 
     Text3 possibly continues

I want to capture the label and the text separately, so that I'll end up with

["Label1", "Text1 \n Text1 possibly continues", 
 "Label2", "Text2", 
 "Label3", "Text3 \n Text3 possibly continues"]

I've got a regex \$(.*):([^$]*) which matches a single instance of the pattern.

I thought maybe something like this: (?:\$(.*):([^$]*))* would give me the desired results, but so far I haven't been able to figure out a regex that works.

abc123 · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-30 19:24:29Z

2

You just need the flag /g so JavaScript Regex var re = /\$(.*):([^$]*)/g;

Regex101

\$(.*):([^$]*)

Regular expression visualization

Debuggex Demo

answered Dec 30, 2014 at 19:24

abc123

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2 Comments

Jephron Over a year ago

Matching with /\$(.*):([^$]*)/g yields an array with only two values, ['$Label1: Text1 \n Text1 possibly continues ', '$Label2: Text2 $Label3: Text3 Text3 possibly continues' ]. Does this mean my original regex was wrong?

abc123 Over a year ago

@Jephron no your regex is correct, just need to loop over matches.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:33:40Z

1

you can use the following function:

function extractInfo(str) {
    var myRegex = /\$(.*):([^$]*)/gm; 
    var match = myRegex.exec(str);
    while (match != null) {

      var key = match[1];
      var value = match[2];
      console.log(key,":", value);
      match = myRegex.exec(str);
}}

Using your example,

var textualInfo = "$Label1: Text1\n    Text1 possibly continues \n$Label2: Text2\n$Label3: Text3 \n     Text3 possibly continues";
extractInfo(textualInfo);

The results:

[Log] Label1 :  Text1
    Text1 possibly continues 

[Log] Label2 :  Text2

[Log] Label3 :  Text3 
     Text3 possibly continues

there's a good answer to this question that explains it all.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:33

CommunityBot

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answered Dec 30, 2014 at 19:36

surui

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