Avoiding white spaces in regular expressions in JavaScript

Question

Avoiding white spaces in regular expressions in JavaScript

Below is my JavaScript code used to eliminate spaces in specific words (ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو) within a given text. When testing this code in Console.log, I encountered an issue.

var text = "ئایا ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟ دووبارە ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟";

text = text.replace(
            new RegExp("(^|\\s|_|«|»|\\[|\\(|\\<|\\>|\\')(ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو)(?= |«|»|\\.|،|_|\\]|\\s|\\:|\\)|\\<|\\>|؟|\\'|\\!|$)", 'g'),
            function (x) { return x.replace(/ /gi, ''); } // 'i' is just to deceive the bidi algorithm on the code view
        );

The output produced is incorrect:

ئایاستاکئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟ دووبارەستاکئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟

This result removes the space before the specified string, causing it to merge with the previous word.

The desired output should be:

ئایا ستاکئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟ دووبارە ستاکئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟

Thank you!

javascript regex console.log

Answer 1

Answer №1

To enhance the code, I recommend consolidating single character alternatives into character classes and resolving the issue by eliminating spaces in Group 2 exclusively, not in Group 1.

var text = "ئایا ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟ دووبارە ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟";

text = text.replace(
  new RegExp("(^|[\\s_«»[(<>'])(ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو)(?=[«».،_\\]\\s:)<>؟'!]|$)", 'g'),
  function (x, punct, word) { return (punct || "") + word.replace(/\s+/gi, ''); }
);
console.log(text)

The regex expression breaks down as follows:

(^|[\s_«»[(<>']) - Capturing group 1 (punct in replacement callback): start of string or a whitespace, underscore, «, », [, (, <, >, or '
(ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو) - Capturing group 2 (word): specific phrase
```
(?=[«».،_\]\s:)<>؟'!]|$)
```
- positive lookahead matching characters following the phrase, such as «, », ., ،, _, ], whitespace, :, ), <, >, ؟, ', !, or end of line.

When a match occurs, any matched punctuation is concatenated with the trimmed word (using word.replace(/\s+/gi, '') to remove whitespaces).

Answer 2

To enhance the code, I recommend consolidating single character alternatives into character classes and resolving the issue by eliminating spaces in Group 2 exclusively, not in Group 1.

var text = "ئایا ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟ دووبارە ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو مانای چییە؟";

text = text.replace(
  new RegExp("(^|[\\s_«»[(<>'])(ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو)(?=[«».،_\\]\\s:)<>؟'!]|$)", 'g'),
  function (x, punct, word) { return (punct || "") + word.replace(/\s+/gi, ''); }
);
console.log(text)

The regex expression breaks down as follows:

(^|[\s_«»[(<>']) - Capturing group 1 (punct in replacement callback): start of string or a whitespace, underscore, «, », [, (, <, >, or '
(ستاک ئەڤەفلۆو) - Capturing group 2 (word): specific phrase
```
(?=[«».،_\]\s:)<>؟'!]|$)
```
- positive lookahead matching characters following the phrase, such as «, », ., ،, _, ], whitespace, :, ), <, >, ؟, ', !, or end of line.

When a match occurs, any matched punctuation is concatenated with the trimmed word (using word.replace(/\s+/gi, '') to remove whitespaces).

Avoiding white spaces in regular expressions in JavaScript

Answer №1

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