Assistance with JavaScript regular expressions for dividing a string into days, hours, and minutes (accounting for plural or singular forms)

Question

Assistance with JavaScript regular expressions for dividing a string into days, hours, and minutes (accounting for plural or singular forms)

My challenge is with handling different variations in a string

var str = "2 Days, 2 Hours 10 Minutes";

When I use :

str.split(/Days/);

The result is:

["2 ", ", 2 Hours 10 Minutes"]

This method seems useful to extract values like "days", "hours" and "minutes" from a string.

However, it gets complicated when the string format changes, for example:

var str = "1 Day, 2 Hours 10 Minutes";

In this case, the string reads "1 Day" instead of "2 Days," altering the placement of "s." Is there a way to split a string based on

Day(s)
Hour(s)
Minute(s)

javascript

Answer 1

Answer №1

If you're utilizing a Regular Expression for splitting, simply add a question mark after the 's' to make it optional:

str.split(/Days?/);

To ensure case-insensitivity, include the i flag in the Regex:

str.split(/days?/i);

You can also achieve this in one line using the match string method (instead of split) like so:

("2 Days, 3 hours, 5 minutes").match(/(\d+)\s*days?\,?\s*(\d+)\s*hours?\,?\s*(\d+)\s*minutes?/i)

This will give you an array with values representing days, hours, and minutes respectively.

To explain the Regex in plain terms:

(captured group, i.e. array item 1) 1 or more digits
zero or more whitespace characters
day
optional s
optional comma
zero or more whitespace characters ... and repeat for hours and minutes.

Refer to the documentation on regex matching in strings here, and detailed resources on regular expressions here.

Answer 2

If you're utilizing a Regular Expression for splitting, simply add a question mark after the 's' to make it optional:

str.split(/Days?/);

To ensure case-insensitivity, include the i flag in the Regex:

str.split(/days?/i);

You can also achieve this in one line using the match string method (instead of split) like so:

("2 Days, 3 hours, 5 minutes").match(/(\d+)\s*days?\,?\s*(\d+)\s*hours?\,?\s*(\d+)\s*minutes?/i)

This will give you an array with values representing days, hours, and minutes respectively.

To explain the Regex in plain terms:

(captured group, i.e. array item 1) 1 or more digits
zero or more whitespace characters
day
optional s
optional comma
zero or more whitespace characters ... and repeat for hours and minutes.

Refer to the documentation on regex matching in strings here, and detailed resources on regular expressions here.

Answer 3

Answer №2

Of course:

str.split(/Days?/);
str.split(/Hours?/);
str.split(/Minutes?/);

Answer 4

Of course:

str.split(/Days?/);
str.split(/Hours?/);
str.split(/Minutes?/);

Answer 5

Answer №3

If you want to condense the Days/Hours/Minutes into a single 3 element array and are confident that your inputs will always contain a value (even if it is 0), a simpler approach could be to remove all non-numeric and non-space characters, then split the string on spaces and eliminate any empty elements.

var result = new Array();
var tempstr = str.replace(/[^0-9\s]/g, ''); 
var arr = tempstr.split(' ');

for(var i = 0; i<arr.length; i++) {
    if (arr[i]) {
        result.push(arr[i]);
    }
}

Disclaimer: The method for cleaning arrays was sourced from this Stack Overflow post.

Answer 6

If you want to condense the Days/Hours/Minutes into a single 3 element array and are confident that your inputs will always contain a value (even if it is 0), a simpler approach could be to remove all non-numeric and non-space characters, then split the string on spaces and eliminate any empty elements.

var result = new Array();
var tempstr = str.replace(/[^0-9\s]/g, ''); 
var arr = tempstr.split(' ');

for(var i = 0; i<arr.length; i++) {
    if (arr[i]) {
        result.push(arr[i]);
    }
}

Disclaimer: The method for cleaning arrays was sourced from this Stack Overflow post.

Assistance with JavaScript regular expressions for dividing a string into days, hours, and minutes (accounting for plural or singular forms)

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

Similar questions

Tips for accessing private variables

Implementing a method to allocate rewards to individual players within a game Bank using arrays in Node.js and JavaScript

Handling Errors in Asynchronous Functions with JavaScriptLet's explore the best practices for

Is there a way to dynamically integrate the Insert Column feature into the ContextMenu of a Syncfusion Treegrid?

Angular2 - HTML not displaying the response

Using Javascript to parse a regular expression in a string

Implementing AJAX in Rails for the new/create action can greatly enhance the user

Sending image to the server with the help of JavaScript

Forward ReactJS

Adding space around a label in a React component with TypeScript

What limitations prevent me from using "await .getAttribute()" in Protractor, despite the fact that it does return a promise?

transferring a document using axios, bypassing the FormData interface

React Native ScrollView with a custom footer that adjusts its size based on the content inside (

Jenkins encountered an issue where script execution was blocked on <URL> due to the document's frame being sandboxed without the 'allow-scripts' permission set

Obtaining the text content of a <div> element when clicked using Selenium

The dropdown menu button stubbornly remains open and refuses to close

Exploring the main directive flow, attaining access to `ctrl.$modelView` in AngularJS is

Achieving different results by modifying an array within a forEach loop

The $scope object in Angular is supposed to display the $scope.data, but for some reason, when I attempt to access it

testing express router with several different handlers