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last_tag="abcde   x";
last_tag = last_tag.replace(/[\s]+x$/, '');

this is my problem: i have to remove an "x" at the end of my string. This piece of code is used in a plugin i've been using without problems until now. On IE 7 "last_tag" is selected in the wrong way, so i get an "x" and i have to remove it. I think who wrote the plugin added this replace to do exactly this but it's not working on IE7.

Example: before:last_tag="abcde x" after: last_tag="abcde"

Actually the problem is that last_tag remain exactly the same.

is the regex correct? is there any error or compatibility issue with IE?

EDIT: Probably the regex is not the issue.

I've tried this piece of code, but nothing happens:

var temp_tag="abc x";
alert(temp_tag);
temp_tag = temp_tag.replace(/[\s]+x$/, '');
alert(temp_tag)

The same piece of code work perfectly on Chrome.

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6
  • The regex is correct and i tested it in IE7 - it's working; Did you test the same replace on other browsers? And are the two lines you've provided an exact copy of the code? Commented Nov 17, 2011 at 13:59
  • no but actually i print an alert just before and just after the "replace" and nothing happens, probably the regex is not the issue. Commented Nov 17, 2011 at 14:10
  • Yes, that's why i was asking you, if everything else is ok, the only reason this regex won't be working is - different encodings of the "x" letter in the regex and the "x" letter in your subject string. But i suppose you just have a js error somewhere before that Commented Nov 17, 2011 at 14:12
  • But just before and just after that, everything works as it does on Chrome. Commented Nov 17, 2011 at 14:19
  • So this last piece of code - what happens in IE7 - both alerts give you the same value or there are no alerts? Commented Nov 17, 2011 at 14:25

3 Answers 3

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3

The regex looks okay, but it's possible you're trying to match non-breaking spaces (U+00A0). \s doesn't match those in IE (as explained in this answer), but it does in FireFox and Chrome.

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2 Comments

@AlanMoore then FF and Chrome do it wrong regarding the standards and IE does it right?
@HerrSerker: No, it looks like IE is doing it wrong. The ECMAScript standard (section 15.10.2.12) calls for \s to include everything in the Unicode Zs ('Separator, Space') category, which includes U+00A0.
2

I'd go for this RegExp

/\s+x$/

don't use character class [] for \s which is a character class already
(shorthand for something like [ \t\r\n\v\f]) (space, tab, carriage return, line feed, vertical tab, form feed)

edit
Alan Moore is right: try this instead

/[\s\u00A0]+x$/

edit
maybe this is case sensitive: maybe \u00a0would not be correct

this should match every white-space-character as well as the non breaking spaces

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6 Comments

I'd go for that regex too, but I wouldn't expect it to solve the problem. \s means the same thing inside a character class as it does outside.
Perhaps to be even more error safe [\s\xA0\u00A0\u2028\u2029]
...or [\s\u00A0\u1680\u180E\u2000-\u20A0\u2028\u2029\u202F\u205F\u3000\uFEFF], which is equivalent to [\t\n\v\f\r\p{Z}\uFEFF] in flavors that support Unicode property escapes. Yes, that last one is the BOM character; don't ask me why ECMAScript tossed that one in.
@AlanMoore I thought that \uFEFF is the ZERO WIDTH NON BREAKING SPACE (fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/feff/index.htm)
@AlanMoore I see. I did a little research. What first was the replacement for U+FEFF (ZWNBSP not BOM) was U+2060 (WORD JOINER), which is deprecated now and itself somewhat replaced by U+200D (ZERO WIDTH JOINER), which I thought before is only for arabic letters (as well as ZWNJ U+200C). see here blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/01/20/357028.aspx (And now the discussion is beginning to get academic :)
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0

Try this

last_tag = last_tag.replace(/[\t\r\n]+x$/, '');
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1 Comment

\s includes all \t, \r and \n

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