Parse complex string with one regular expression

Question

How can I get from this string

genre:+Drama,Comedy+cast:+Leonardo+DiCaprio,Cmelo+Hotentot+year:+1986-1990

this

genre: [Drama, Comedy],
cast: [Leonardo DiCaprio, Cmelo Hotentot],
year: [1986-1990]

with one regular expression?

you can't, in general, because there are two levels of grouping for teh results (subject and entry), and regexps only support a single level. — andrew cooke
– andrew cooke, Commented Apr 10, 2012 at 16:15
I hoped for an elegant one regex :) I was just curious if it could be done — acheruns
– acheruns, Commented Apr 10, 2012 at 16:16

Oleks · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-10 19:34:35Z

1

This could be done using one regex and overload of replace function with replacer as a second argument. But honestly, I have to use one more replace to get rid of pluses (+) - I replaced them by a space () char:

var str = 'genre:+Drama,Comedy+cast:+Leonardo+DiCaprio,Cmelo+Hotentot+year:+1986-1990';
str = str.replace(/\+/g, ' ');
var result = str.replace(/(\w+:)(\s?)([\w,\s-]+?)(\s?)(?=\w+:|$)/g, function (m, m1, m2, m3, m4, o) {
    return m1 + ' [' + m3.split(',').join(', ') + ']' + (o + m.length != str.length ? ',' : '') + '\n';
});

You could find the full example on jsfiddle.

answered Apr 10, 2012 at 19:34

Oleks

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epascarello · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-10 16:27:47Z

1

You will not get them into arrays from the start, but it can be parsed if the order stays the same all the time.

var str = "genre:+Drama,Comedy+cast:+Leonardo+DiCaprio,Cmelo+Hotentot+year:+1986-1990";
str = str.replace(/\+/g," ");

//Get first groupings
var re = /genre:\s?(.+)\scast:\s?(.+)\syear:\s(.+)/
var parts = str.match(re)

//split to get them into an array
var genre = parts[1].split(",");
var cast = parts[2].split(",");
var years = parts[3];

console.log(genre);

answered Apr 10, 2012 at 16:27

epascarello

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2 Comments

acheruns Over a year ago

Unfortunately the order will not stay the same all the time. Actually it will be always different

epascarello Over a year ago

Than you need to do it in parts!

PEdroArthur · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-10 16:28:12Z

0

You can't do this using only regular expressions cause you're trying to parse a (tiny) grammar.

answered Apr 10, 2012 at 16:28

PEdroArthur

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