I need to pass a regular expression in a validation function in my code that can only be set by an administrator in a back office platform as a string (e.g. '/^(?:\d{8}|\d{11})$/'). After it is passed I need to take this string and transform it into an actual javascript regex in order to use it.
const validator = (regex, value) => {
if (value && regex.test(value)) {
return 'Yeah!!';
}
return null;
};
So I need this '/^(?:\d{8}|\d{11})$/' to be like this /^(?:\d{8}|\d{11})$/.
You can initialize a regex with the RegExp method (documentation on MDN):
The
RegExpconstructor creates a regular expression object for matching text with a pattern.
const regex2 = new RegExp('^(?:\\d{8}|\\d{11})$');
console.log(regex2); // /^(?:\d{8}|\d{11})$/
You could instantiate the RegExp class and use it in two ways:
First:
new RegExp('<expression>').test(...)
Second:
/<expression>/.test(...)
Both ways will create an RegExp instance.
When to use one over the other?
Using the new RegExp way you can pass variables to the expression, like that:
new RegExp('^abc' + myVar + '123$');
Which you can't do using the second way.
