JavaScript Regex not detecting

Question

I attempted to create a Regex that matches Opening HTML Tags.

<\w+((\s+\w+(\s*=\s*(?:\".*?\"|'.*?'|[^'\">\s]+))?)+\s*|\s*)>

Is what I have come up with. It works great in RegexPal.com http://gyazo.com/cef34f653c4a3483a31394330455c0cf But as soon as I try to use it on some text in JS (both Chrome and Node) this happens: http://gyazo.com/0c938ee289c1632f3f576aaccda1f81e

Rules is defined like that:

var Rules = [
    new RegExp("<\w+((\s+\w+(\s*=\s*(?:\".*?\"|'.*?'|[^'\">\s]+))?)+\s*|\s*)/>"),
    new RegExp("<\w+((\s+\w+(\s*=\s*(?:\".*?\"|'.*?'|[^'\">\s]+))?)+\s*|\s*)>"),
    new RegExp("</\w+((\s+\w+(\s*=\s*(?:\".*?\"|'.*?'|[^'\">\s]+))?)+\s*|\s*)>")
];

and Content is defined like that:

var Content = "<!DOCTYPE HTML><html><head><title>derp</title></head><body><div class=\"derp\"><!--this is formatted terribly -->derp<br /></div></body></html>";

You know what they say - if you've got one problem and try to solve it with RegEx, now you've got two problems. — Adam Jenkins
– Adam Jenkins, Commented May 17, 2013 at 14:51
Well I was just playing around a little with the HTML syntax and tried to create a Tokenizer. — BeryJu
– BeryJu, Commented May 17, 2013 at 14:53

epascarello · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-17 14:53:17Z

2

The problem is if you want to use RegExp() you need to double up the \.

 new RegExp("<\\w+((\\s+...

It would be better to drop the RegExp and just use /regExp/

var Rules = [
    /<\w+((\s+\w+(\s*=\s*(?:\".*?\"|'.*?'|[^'\">\s]+))?)+\s*|\s*)/>/,
    /<\w+((\s+\w+(\s*=\s*(?:\".*?\"|'.*?'|[^'\">\s]+))?)+\s*|\s*)>"/,
    /</\w+((\s+\w+(\s*=\s*(?:\".*?\"|'.*?'|[^'\">\s]+))?)+\s*|\s*)>/
];

answered May 17, 2013 at 14:53

epascarello

208k20 gold badges206 silver badges246 bronze badges

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

Comments

Paul Butcher · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-17 14:53:14Z

0

When used inside a string, you need to escape \ to \\, otherwise you are just escaping whatever comes afterwards.

Either escape the \ characters or use the /regex/ syntax for defining a regex.

answered May 17, 2013 at 14:53

Paul Butcher

6,95630 silver badges40 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

JavaScript Regex not detecting

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related