Getting string in quotes in javascript

Question

How may I write a function to get all the strings in quotes from a string? The string may contain escaped quotes. I've tried regex but as regex does not have a state like feature, I wasn't able to do that. Example:

apple banana "pear" strawberries "\"tomato\"" "i am running out of fruit\" names here"

should return an array like ['pear', '"tomato"', 'i am running out of fruit" names here']

Maybe something with split can work, though I can't figure out how.

Show your code! Handling escaped quotes inside a regex shouldn't be a problem (basically you let it contain a repeated sequence of almost anything ending in an escaped quote) — Stefan Haustein
– Stefan Haustein, Commented Apr 3, 2021 at 13:40
@StefanHaustein but how can i retain the information of whether if i am in the quote or not in regex? — Return Cos
– Return Cos, Commented Apr 3, 2021 at 14:15

Return Cos · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-04 05:20:51Z

1

I solved this problem using the following function:

const getStringInQuotes = (text) => {

    let quoteTogether = "";
    let retval = [];
    let a = text.split('"');
    let inQuote = false;
    for (let i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
        if (inQuote) {
            quoteTogether += a[i];
            if (quoteTogether[quoteTogether.length - 1] !== '\\') {
                inQuote = false;
                retval.push(quoteTogether);
                quoteTogether = "";
            } else {
                quoteTogether = quoteTogether.slice(0, -1) + '"'
            }
        } else {
            inQuote = true;
        }
    }
    return retval;
}

answered Apr 4, 2021 at 5:20

Return Cos

776 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

famoha · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-03 15:05:38Z

0

Try this:

function getStringInQuotes(text) {

    const regex = const regex = /(?<=")\w+ .*(?=")|(?<=")\w+(?=")|\"\w+\"(?=")|(?<=" )\w+(?=")|(?<=")\w+(?= ")/g

    return text.match(regex);

}

const text = `apple banana "pear" strawberries "\"tomato\"" "i am running out of fruit\" names here"`;

console.log(getStringInQuotes(text));

edited Apr 3, 2021 at 15:05

answered Apr 3, 2021 at 14:25

famoha

4351 gold badge4 silver badges12 bronze badges

5 Comments

Return Cos Over a year ago

This was the approach I tried, though it fails on 'apple"banana"hello"world"'' and 'apple "banana" hello" world"'

famoha Over a year ago

@ReturnCos In the example inside the question you did not mention any single quotation. please update the question respectively. also add other examples of what the input should be and what the output should be. that would help with determining what you really want to achieve.

Return Cos Over a year ago

i don't need the single quotations. I just put them to represent the string. Just ignore them.

famoha Over a year ago

@ReturnCos i updated the answer, as i tested it, it gets banana and hello, world on both cases you mentioned. check it out.

Return Cos Over a year ago

fails on apple "banana" hello" world"dasd"asdfasds"

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Getting string in quotes in javascript

2 Answers 2

Comments

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related