Take words from string and convert to array

Question

Seems simple enough but I can't find an answer on Stack that has a good solution. Feel free to point me in the right direction.

The regex should allow me to do a javascript split to convert a string into an array. The basic test is that:

test1 test2, tes-t3; t"e's-----4.      test5

should be split into an array that contains:

[test1, test2, tes-t3, t"e's-----4, test5]

Best way to achieve this?

I don't see any regex...What have you tried so far? Check here regular-expressions.info — elclanrs
– elclanrs, Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 4:06

falsetru · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-25 04:14:53Z

3

Use String.split(/[\s,;.]+/):

var s = 'test1 test2, tes-t3; t"e\'s-----4.      test5';
s.split(/[\s,;.]+/)
=> ["test1", "test2", "tes-t3", "t"e's-----4", "test5"]

or String.match(/[-'"\w]+/g):

s.match(/[-'"\w]+/g)
=> ["test1", "test2", "tes-t3", "t"e's-----4", "test5"]

edited Jul 25, 2013 at 4:14

answered Jul 25, 2013 at 4:07

falsetru

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7 Comments

Angga Over a year ago

maybe you should use regex [\s,;\.]+ to split instead of [\s,;.]+?

falsetru Over a year ago

@Angga, You don't need to escape dot(.) inside [].

JVG Over a year ago

Is there a way to modify this so that it doesn't count ending spaces? Currently if the input has var s = 'test1 ' (space at the end) it splits to ['test1', ''].

falsetru Over a year ago

@Jascination, Which one do you want as a result: ['test1 '] (with trailing space remained), ['test1'] (no trailing space)?

JVG Over a year ago

The latter, ['test1']. Apologies, it's hard to be super-specific with questions when you're new to this sort of thing!

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schnill · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-25 04:57:05Z

0

try this also, "test1 test2, tes-t3; t\"e's-----4. test5".split(/\s+|[,.;]\s*/);

answered Jul 25, 2013 at 4:57

schnill

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