How to get href of string in Javascript

Question

a 3rd party tool I'm using builds an anchor tag like so..

"<a href="http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123">http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123</a>"

I need to isolate the href so I can trim it. Currently my pattern of

reg = /^(<a\shref=")? http:\/\/DevNode\/Lists\/Publications.aspx#\/publication\/(\d+)/i {lastIndex: 0}

will fail to match if the href has a leading space like this

"<a href=" http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123"> http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123</a>"

Please help

So add an optional space in the reg exp. Aso seems like it is a bug if it has a leading space — epascarello
– epascarello, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 17:56
What about answer here => stackoverflow.com/a/15926317/929902 ? — Teoman shipahi
– Teoman shipahi, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 17:57
@epascarello yes I agree, I've reported it to the 3rd party. How do I add an exemption for infinite optional spaces, I'm not familiar with regex. — Jeremy Nelson
– Jeremy Nelson, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 18:01

T.J. Crowder · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-17 17:57:22Z

7

If you're doing this on a browser the simplest way is to let the browser figure it out:

var div = document.createElement("div");
div.innerHTML = yourString;
var href = div.querySelector("a").href;

This also has the advantage of resolving it if it's a relative URL. If you don't want that, use getAttribute instead:

var href = div.querySelector("a").getAttribute("href");

Note that if you use getAttribute, if the attribute has a leading space, the leading space will be in the result; String#trim could be useful if you want to get rid of it.

answered Oct 17, 2016 at 17:57

T.J. Crowder

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1 Comment

Jeremy Nelson Over a year ago

Thanks, This was a helpful approach and works well without jquery.

Simon · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-17 18:01:23Z

1

You may want to use the * quantifier that says "any number of times including zero" combined to the \s it will match spaces, newlines or else.

So use \s+ where a space is required but there might be more than one

And use \s* where a space is optional but there might be some

reg = /^(<a\s+href=")?\s*http:\/\/DevNode\/Lists\/Publications.aspx#\/publication\/(\d+)/i

answered Oct 17, 2016 at 18:01

Simon

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2 Comments

Jeremy Nelson Over a year ago

i think this is what would be most helpful but it does not seem to work.

Jeremy Nelson Over a year ago

nvm, I was using var reg = new RegExp(pattern, 'i'); to create the pattern and therefor needed to escape the backslash character, Thank you, different from my title but indeed most helpful answer

Dan Nagle · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-17 18:17:09Z

1

Keep it simple:

var ahref = '<a href="http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123">http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123</a>';
var href = ahref.split('"')[1];

answered Oct 17, 2016 at 18:17

Dan Nagle

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JorgeObregon · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-17 18:03:18Z

0

An easy/fast answer is using jQuery, building the tag, and looking for the href attribute.

$('<a href="http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123">http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123</a>')
.attr('href')

I'll try to get you the RegExp in a bit. Hang on tight...

And as promissed... here's the RegExp

var text = '<a href="http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123">http://DevNode/Lists/Publications.aspx#/publication/123</a>';
console.log(text.match(/<a\s+(?:[^>]*?\s+)?href="([^"]*)"/)[1])

edited Oct 17, 2016 at 18:03

answered Oct 17, 2016 at 17:57

JorgeObregon

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1 Comment

T.J. Crowder Over a year ago

jQuery is not tagged in the question. And "I'll try to [answer fully later]" isn't useful.

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