JavaScript regular expression (Page range validation)

Question

Yesterday I've got a task to implement a validation on the field where user can enter the range of pages that he wants to download.

After reading some tutorials, I've created such pattern which in my opinion should work, but it doesn't :(

Can you give me a hint where is the mistake, or how it should be done in the better way.

<script type="text/javascript">
var patt1=new RegExp("^(\s*\d+\s*\-\s*\d+\s*,?|\s*\d+\s*,?)+$");
document.write(patt1.test("1, 2, 3-5, 6, 8, 10-12"));
</script>

P.S. You can test it here: http://www.w3schools.com/js/tryit.asp?filename=tryjs_regexp_test

More examples:

1 match
1-2 match
-2 not match
1, 2-3, 4, 5-7 match
1 2, 3 not match
1-2-2 not match

etc... like in MS Office or Adobe PDF Reader

Please provide more examples.

dheerosaur
– dheerosaur

2010-12-17 06:48:15 +00:00
Commented Dec 17, 2010 at 6:48 — dheerosaur
– dheerosaur, Commented Dec 17, 2010 at 6:48

cdhowie · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-17 06:49:58Z

9

You need to escape the backslashes in the string, or JavaScript will strip them out or interpret them as escape sequences:

var patt1 = new RegExp("^(\\s*\\d+\\s*\\-\\s*\\d+\\s*,?|\\s*\\d+\\s*,?)+$");

answered Dec 17, 2010 at 6:49

cdhowie

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2 Comments

Filip Spiridonov Over a year ago

Hell, yeah! That's what I was missing! You rule :)

Presbitero Over a year ago

This RegExp matches the 1-2-2 format. Check the @codaddict solution bellow.

codaddict · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-17 06:48:59Z

7

You can try the regex:

^(\d+(-\d+)?)(,\d+(-\d+)?)*$

To allow white spaces between you can do:

^(\s*\d+\s*(-\s*\d+\s*)?)(,\s*\d+\s*(-\s*\d+\s*)?)*$

Rubular link

answered Dec 17, 2010 at 6:48

codaddict

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Comments

KooiInc · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-17 07:01:14Z

2

You can define patt1 without new RegExp, using a regular expression literal. Otherwise you'll have to escape all '\' in the regular expression string (using '\\').

var patt1 = /^(\s*\d+\s*\-\s*\d+\s*,?|\s*\d+\s*,?)+$/g;

now patt1.test("1, 2, 3-5, 6, 8, 10-12") should evaluate to true, patt1.test("1, 2, 3-5, 6, 8, 10-12,nocando") to false

answered Dec 17, 2010 at 7:01

KooiInc

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1 Comment

Filip Spiridonov Over a year ago

Thank you also, now I've got the difference.

Caner · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-17 07:05:57Z

1

^((\\d+(\\-\\d+)?, ?)*(\\d+(\\-\\d+)?))+$

edited Dec 17, 2010 at 7:05

answered Dec 17, 2010 at 7:00

Caner

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