Using the provided code snippet:
str.replace(/[^a-zA-Z]/g, '').toLowerCase()
By applying this code, you eliminate all characters that are not within the range of A-Z and a-z, and then convert the resulting string to lowercase. The ^
symbol at the beginning of a character class such as [
..]
- as seen in [^...]
- indicates to match anything except for the specified characters. For instance, [a-z]
denotes matching letters from 'a' to 'z', while [^a-z]
implies matching any character except for those found between 'a' and 'z'.
Here is a Demo link
Various online regex tools are available for understanding different patterns. By visiting Regex101, you can decode the following explanation:
/[^a-zA-Z]/g
[^a-zA-Z] corresponds to a single character not included in the list below
a-z stands for a single character within the range of a to z (case sensitive)
A-Z stands for a single character within the range of A to Z (case sensitive)
g modifier: global; it matches all occurrences (rather than just stopping at the first match)