How to make a function that can parse space sensitive strings in javascript?

Question

I have a string str defined as :

const str = `
 @get body {
     Anything here.....
     Any no. of lines

     Or, empty lines as above
 }
`

I made a function get() which, by name gets the element, the @get is marking , and yes the content between the { & }. It can be used something like this :

console.log(get(str))
// body
/*  
     Anything here.....
     Any no. of lines

     Or, empty lines as above
*/

So, the source of my function ( I don't have much experience to use match(), so I usually use replace() for getting the value as well as replacing with anything if and only if I require, so please feel free to edit my code ) :

const get = (val) => {
  val.replace(/@get(.*?)\{([\S\s]*?)\}/gm, (_, a, b) => {
    console.log(a)
    console.log(b)
   }
}

So, now my question is what if I remove the brackets i.e { & } ? Assumed syntax :

const str = `
 @get body 
    Anything here.....
    Any no. of lines

    Or, empty lines as above
 Don't catch me !
`
console.log(get(str))

Now, the output remains same. How how can I make my get() function space sensitive. You can see that the sentence "Don't catch me !", have the same no. of spaces in front of it as of the @get, therefore it is parsed as an external content and is not stated as the content of the @get body block, hence not displayed. So, I am thinking how to do it ? Is it possible in javascript ?

Yeh, it looks alike python, syntax but the answer is no ! I am trying to figure out how simple a syntax can be made in javascript. — MOD ER HACKS
– MOD ER HACKS, Commented Jan 20, 2020 at 15:43
Why not just read line by line with a bit more code and less regex? — trincot
– trincot, Commented Jan 20, 2020 at 15:50
I have an idea. We can find the no. of spaces between the initial position of a line and the first word i.e @get here, and go on matching it until the same value is found. Afterwards the line with disimilar space counts will be wrapped into { and }, and then it can be easily understood by get(). Is this a good one ? — MOD ER HACKS
– MOD ER HACKS, Commented Jan 20, 2020 at 15:56

trincot · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-20 16:05:29Z

1

Here is how you could do it with a regex. I would add additional logic to remove the leading spaces from the found content:

const str = `
 @get body
    Anything here.....
    Any no. of lines

    Or, empty lines as above
 Don't catch me !
`;

function get(str) {
    let [,,name, content] = (str.match(/^([ ]*)@get\s*(.*\S).*((?:[\r\n]+^\1[ ].*)*)/m) || []);
    content = content.trim().replace(/^[ ]+/gm, ""); // remove leading spaces from all lines
    return [name, content];
}

console.log(get(str));

This requires that the content will consist of lines that have at least one more leading space than the @get line (or are empty).

answered Jan 20, 2020 at 16:05

trincot

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LukStorms · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-20 16:50:14Z

0

A bit too late on the scene.
But here's a similar function that uses match.

 const str = `
 @get body 
    Anything here.....
    Any no. of lines

    Or, empty lines as above
 Do not catch me
 `
 
 const get = (str) => {
     let arr = str.match(/@get\s+(\S+)\s*[\r\n]+(\s+)(.*[\r\n]+(?:\2.*[\r\n]+|\s*[\r\n]+)*)/);
     let res = { 
 	     title: arr[1], 
 	     indentation: arr[2],
 	     content: arr[3]
     };   
    console.log(res.title, res.content);
 };
 
get(str);

answered Jan 20, 2020 at 16:50

LukStorms

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