Using OR in regex to replace multiple matches with JS replace() [duplicate]

Question

A few other answers to similar questions mention to simply use an | to do multiple matches, but it doesn't seem to be working in JS for me.

I have the following string: /hi_hawaii_zip_codes_geo.min.json and want to output hawaii.

The following code doesn't work: str.replace(/_z.*|^.{0,5}/, '') however, running _z.*|^.{0,5} matches fine on regexpal.com as a test, and I'm able to replace the correct matching substrings by chaining 2 replace()s.

Is there some special exception for regex in JS or replace that I'm overlooking?

/^.{0,4}|_z.*/g

Arman Charan
– Arman Charan

2018-06-27 00:46:42 +00:00
Commented Jun 27, 2018 at 0:46 — Arman Charan
– Arman Charan, Commented Jun 27, 2018 at 0:46

Bohemian · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-27 00:33:56Z

2

Add the global flag:

str.replace(/_z.*|^.{0,5}/g, '')
            add “g” —————-^

answered Jun 27, 2018 at 0:33

Bohemian♦

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1 Comment

Jacob Simmons Over a year ago

thank you! that's what I was missing, didn't realize the particularities of replace().

cybersam · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-27 01:26:49Z

1

It's not clear from the question why replace needs to be used at all. There are at least 2 other approaches to getting "hawaii" from the same str:

str.match(/_(.*?)_/)[1]

and

str.split('_')[1]

answered Jun 27, 2018 at 1:26

cybersam

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1 Comment

Jacob Simmons Over a year ago

Thanks! I was aware of split, but really wanted to work and improve my regex through this as well.

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