Regex: Matching a pattern but excluding part of the pattern

Question

I'm struggling to figure out how to exclude my match from the following sample:

myJavascriptArray(["foo","bar"]);

I can match the string no problem with:

myJavascriptArray\(.+\);

Really, all I want is the ["foo","bar"] part.

I can ignore the myJavascriptArray part using:

(?!myJavascriptArray)\(.+\);  // matches (["foo","bar"]);

But then I'm completely lost!

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-06 22:57:12Z

3

You can use:

string.match( /myJavascriptArray\((.+?)\)/ )[1];

Or to safeguard:

var m = string.match( /myJavascriptArray\((.+?)\)/ );
var myval = m ? m[1] : "";

This capturing the interested value in a group and use that group in output array.

answered Mar 6, 2014 at 22:57

anubhava

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2 Comments

I should have said - I'm not actually going to be using javascript, it will be Ruby but the match looks like it works thank you so much.

Yes similar concept works for ruby or or any other language also.