Regex Pattern too long -- need split in JavaScript without escape characters

Question

I'm dealing with a really long regex pattern to match on and it's so long I'm going to have to split it up into several different strings. My question is: How can I avoid the escape characters in JavaScript to instantiate a new RegExp to create a testable pattern?

In C# it's pretty simple: Just suffice the string with the @ symbol and the compiler takes care of it. JavaScript is totally different and I'm not certain what the equivalent statement is.

Use a regex literal notation, /\w+/. Then, you'd need to call the .source property to access the pattern itself for concatenation (/\w+/.source + /\s+/.source). — Wiktor Stribiżew
– Wiktor Stribiżew, Commented Nov 14, 2016 at 22:52
The forward slash is what i am trying to avoid. It's an "escape character" — user1789573
– user1789573, Commented Nov 14, 2016 at 22:53
@user1789573: You do not understand that /.../ are not escaping characters, these are regex delimiters. — Wiktor Stribiżew
– Wiktor Stribiżew, Commented Nov 14, 2016 at 22:54
You alse can simplify your regexp, e.g. (\s?\s?\s?\s?) == (\s{0,4}) ; (\s{0,4})? == (\s{0,4}) etc — br3t
– br3t, Commented Nov 14, 2016 at 23:03

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-14 23:01:10Z

1

You may use a regex literal notation, e.g. /\w+/. Then, you'd need to call the .source property to access the pattern itself for concatenation purposes, e.g. /\w+/.source + /\s+/.source.

See more details about using RegExp at MDN.

Personally, I'd rather build a pattern from string blocks, where \ should be doubled (e.g. var word = "\\w+"; var spaces = "\\s+"; var pattern = word + spaces;. This way, the overhead related to regex object construction will be avoided. It is up to you to choose the most convenient approach.

answered Nov 14, 2016 at 23:01

Wiktor Stribiżew

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