Exclude certain characters using RegEx

Question

Try as I might, I can't get a RegEx to exclude space or single quotes.

The string "abc" is allowed
Not allowed: "a'bc", "'", "'abc", "'''", "abc''" etc
Spaces could replace the ' too in the above example
Trailing and leading spaces are assumed to be removed already
Empty strings are checked elsewhere
Target language is javascript

I'd use PATINDEX if I was in SQL.

Or NOT a positive match on either space or single quote, if I could negate...

I've tried (for single quote only)

\w*[^']\w*
^\w*[^']\w*$
others I forget now

Please put me out of my misery so I can sleep tonight.

Edit:

Target string will not be surrounded by Quotes. I thought thy might add clarity
If "Target language is javascript" is wrong, then it's c#. I'd have to check where we do the validation exactly: client javascript or server c#

What regular expression language? Python, Perl, C#, Java? They are all subtly different. — Christopher
– Christopher, Commented Jul 14, 2009 at 20:21
It the test string always going to be surrounded in double quotes? — laz
– laz, Commented Jul 14, 2009 at 20:22

Wojciech Bederski · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-14 20:20:48Z

14

^[^\'\ ]*$

?

answered Jul 14, 2009 at 20:20

Wojciech Bederski

3,9121 gold badge29 silver badges29 bronze badges

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

1 Comment

jsh Over a year ago

Isn't it more standard to use the \s character class for the whitespace? (and at least in some flavors of regex, \S matches NON-whitespace...)

Daniel Brückner · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-14 20:21:57Z

8

Quite simple. Does not allow empty strings.

^[^' ]+$

answered Jul 14, 2009 at 20:21

Daniel Brückner

59.8k16 gold badges103 silver badges144 bronze badges

3 Comments

gbn Over a year ago

wuub answered first but thanks +1. This also works. Why + and not * though please?

Wojciech Bederski Over a year ago

+1 for the non escaped version. You're probably better regexper that I am :)

Daniel Brückner Over a year ago

+ instead of * to disallow empty strings.

Victor · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-14 20:27:25Z

2

i think this

^\w*$

should work as \w does not include single quote or space.

answered Jul 14, 2009 at 20:27

Victor

5,8176 gold badges36 silver badges41 bronze badges

Comments

dkretz · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-14 20:21:09Z

1

Without reading the details, I don't see [^ '] in there anywhere (with a space and a single-quote).

answered Jul 14, 2009 at 20:21

dkretz

37.6k13 gold badges84 silver badges140 bronze badges

1 Comment

gbn Over a year ago

Correct. I was initially testing for single quote only

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Exclude certain characters using RegEx

4 Answers 4

1 Comment

3 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

1 Comment

3 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related