Javascript regex to get substring, excluding a pattern?

OK here is the problem in your expression

([a-zA-Z0-9\s]+)([(\[d+\])]+)$

The Problem is only in the last part

([(\[d+\])]+)$
 ^        ^
 here are you creating a character class, 
 what you don't want because everything inside will be matched literally.

((\[d+\])+)$
 ^      ^^
here you create a capturing group and repeat this at least once ==> not needed

(\[d+\])$
   ^
  here you want to match digits but forgot to escape

That brings us to

([a-zA-Z0-9\s]+)(\[\d+\])$

See it here on Regexr, the complete string is matched, the section 1 in capturing group 1 and section 2 in group 2.

When you now replace the whole thing with the content of group 1 you are done.

You could do this

var s = "1 checked arranged [1678]";

var a = s.indexOf('[');

var b = s.substring(0,a);

alert(b);

http://jsfiddle.net/jasongennaro/ZQe6Y/1/

This s.indexOf('['); checks for where the first [ appears in the string.

This s.substring(0,a); chops the string, from the beginning to the first [.

Of course, this assumes the string is always in a similar format

var item = '1 check arranged [1678]',
    matches = item.match(/(.*)(?=\[\d+\])/));

alert(matches[1]);

The regular expression I used makes use of a positive lookahead to exclude the undesired portion of the string. The bracketed number must be a part of the string for the match to succeed, but it will not be returned in the results.

Here you can find how to delete stuff inside square brackets. This will leave you with the rest. :) Regex: delete contents of square brackets

try this if you only want to get rid of that [] in the end

var parsed = item.replace(/\s*\[[^\]]*\]$/,"")

var item = "1 checked arranged [1678]";
var parsed = item.replace(/\s\[.*/,"");
alert(parsed);

That work as desired?

Use escaped brackets and non-capturing parentheses:

var item = "1 checked arranged [1678]";
var parsed = item.match(/([\w\s]+)(?:\s+\[\d+\])$/);
alert(parsed[1]); //"1 checked arranged"

Explanation of regex:

([\w\s]+)    //Match alphanumeric characters and spaces
(?:          //Start of non-capturing parentheses
\s*          //Match leading whitespace if present, and remove it
\[           //Bracket literal
\d+          //One or more digits
\]           //Bracket literal
)            //End of non-capturing parentheses
$            //End of string