JS Regex to check that string only includes anchor

Question

I am trying to create a regex that will return true only when the string only contains an anchor like so <a href="www.something.com">Link</a>.

Currently I have the following regex which almost works (?=.*^<a)(?=.*<\/a>).*/g

This works for the following scenarios:

<a href="www.something.com">Link</a> - Matches successfully

words before <a href="www.something.com">Link</a> - No matches - success

<a href="www.something.com">Link</a> words after - finds match - Not successful :(

I think I'm pretty close, I just need to know how to not find a match if there are any characters after the </a>.

What if it contains two anchors, like <a ...>foo</a>something else<a ...>bar</a> — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Jan 30, 2020 at 18:04
^ = beginning of string "^<" = starts with "<", $ = end of string ">$" = ends with ">" — Daniel F
– Daniel F, Commented Jan 30, 2020 at 18:04
There's no need to use the g modifier if you're using a regexp for testing, rather than returning the matching part of a string or replacing. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Jan 30, 2020 at 18:06

eMontielG · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-30 19:21:51Z

1

Add a $ after the last >

(?=.*^<a)(?=.*<\/a>$).*

Alternatively, this regex matches links and discards everything else, irregardless of whether there are one or more links in the same line.

<a.*?\/a>

answered Jan 30, 2020 at 18:08

eMontielG

4262 silver badges7 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Amazing, thanks for this! I was very close, just hadn't put the last character after the angle.