Pattern matching for traversing object properties

Is there a dependable method to match property-syntax using a Javascript regex? My goal is to identify whether a string contains a path structure, without the need to extract the specific members. For instance, if I have a string such as:

someobject.somekey.somechildkey.somegrandchildkey

and another string like:

This is some long string that contains a property.path.syntax, and I need to test it.

Answer №1

let pattern = /[a-zA-Z_]([a-zA-Z0-9_]*\.[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)+/i;
pattern.test("your.test.case");

When using the above regular expression:

  • it does not match .test
  • it does not match test.
  • it does not match test
  • it does not match 0test, as JavaScript does not allow variable names to start with a number

NOTE: Following advice from Paulchenkiller, and taking the i modifier into account for case insensitivity, you can also use the shorter expression below:

let pattern = /[a-z_](\w*\.[a-z_]\w*)+/i;

Answer №2

Give this a shot:

/\b(?:\S+?\.)+\S+\b/g

Check it out here


Enclosed between two word boundaries, this regular expression should be effective in most scenarios (where a word character is adjacent to a non-word character). It lazily repeats one or more non-whitespace characters followed by a period that is escaped. The use of \S for non-whitespace characters is crucial, as properties can contain a wide range of characters, as noted by @TJCrowder. Additionally, there must always be another set of non-whitespace characters after the final period.

Answer №3

Considering the specific requirements mentioned in the feedback, a tailored regular expression pattern has been crafted:

/(?:[a-zA-Z_$]+[\w$]*)(?:\.[a-zA-Z_$]+[\w$]*)+/g

For a more detailed version with additional insights, you can explore this interactive demo (Make sure to include the g flag for repeated occurrences).

This regex pattern aims to:

  • Identify words starting with characters like a-z, A-Z, _, or $ (please note this is not an exhaustive list)
  • Match a mix of those characters and digits
  • Recognize one or more non-capturing groups with the same structure, starting with a .

To avoid matches like one.that and should.not within a given text snippet:

/(?:\s|^)((?:[a-zA-Z_$]+[\w$]*)(?:\.[a-zA-Z_$]+[\w$]*)+)(?:\s|$)/g

Check out the live demo here

This refined pattern maintains the previous functionality and introduces:

  • A requirement for whitespace or start-of-string at the beginning ((?:\s|^)) and whitespace or end-of-string at the end ((?:\s|$))
  • A capture group to extract the property path without any surrounding whitespace

JavaScript identifiers support a wide range of characters beyond the standard \w (e.g. [a-zA-Z0-9_]), refer to the ECMA-262 documentation for more information.

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