I have the following JavaScript line of code that removes characters- including commas- from a string:
return str.replace(/(?!\/)(?!\ )(?!\-)(\W)/ig, ''); How can I only take out the piece of code that removes the commas?
- Not the downvoter, but please provide some more information and expected input and output strings.Jan– Jan2017-02-11 18:25:09 +00:00Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 18:25
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1 Answer
The regex /(?!\/)(?!\ )(?!\-)(\W)/ig matches any character that is not a "word" character (ie. [a-zA-Z0-9_]) and the 3 lookaheads restrict also the character /, and -. The comma is removed because it is part of \W.
If you want to keep it, add another lookahead: (?!,), then your regex becomes:
return str.replace(/(?!\/)(?! )(?!-)(?!,)(\W)/g, ''); I've removed the unnecessay escape and the case insensitive flag.
This should be written as:
return str.replace(/[^\w\/, -]/g, ''); 4 Comments
user3378165
Thank you for your answer, can you explain why can't I simply remove this part:
\W from the regex? Could you also explain what you mean by: I've removed the unnecessary escape and the case insensitive flag.? Thank you!
Toto
@user3378165: In a regex you have to escape certain special characters. Space and dash are not special, so, there're no needs to escape them. You can't remove only
\W because it rests only 3 negative lookahead that are 0-length match, you can't remove nothing by nothing!Toto
@user3378165: For some regex basics, see stackoverflow.com/questions/22937618/… and regular-expressions.info
user3378165
Working perfectly, thank you so much, I'll look into the attached link, thank you!