Javascript regex parsing

Question

I'm looking to parse some formatting out of a field using javascript. My rule is catching some extra things which I need to fix. The regex is:

/[\((\)\s)-]/g

This regex is properly cleaning up: (123) 456-7890 the problem I'm having is that it is also removing all spaces rather than just spaces following a closing parentheses. I'm no expert in regex but it was my understanding that (\)\s) would only remove the closing parentheses and space combo. What would the correct regex look like? It needs to remove all parentheses and dashes. Also, only remove spaces immediately following a closing parentheses.

The outcomes I would like are such.

The replace method i am using should work as such

var str = mystring.replace(/[\((\)\s)-]/g, '');

(123) 456-7890 should become 1234567890 which is working.

leave me alone should stay leave me alone the issue is that it is becoming leavemealone

Can you show exactly what output you expect from a given input, instead of just describing it? That will make it much easier to provide the desired solution. — Wayne
– Wayne, Commented Mar 23, 2011 at 15:06

codaddict · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-23 15:15:09Z

1

This will do the job:

var str = mystring.replace(/\)\s*|\(\s*|-/g, '');

Explanation of the regex:

\)\s* : Open parenthesis followed by any number of whitespace
|     : OR
\(\s* : Close parenthesis followed by any number of whitespace
|     : OR
-     : Hyphen

Since parenthesis are regex-metacharacters used for grouping they need to be escaped when you want to match them literally.

answered Mar 23, 2011 at 15:15

codaddict

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1 Comment

Jeremy B. Over a year ago

Thanks codaddict. Using the or makes sense.

Wayne · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-23 15:13:52Z

1

Placing everything in brackets ([]) creates a class of characters to match anywhere in the input. Taking your requirements literally ("remove all parentheses, dashes and spaces immediately following a closing parentheses"):

"(123) 456-789 0".replace(/\)[\(\)\s-]+/g, ")")

Output:

"(123)456-789 0"

This matches (essentially) the same character class, but specifies that these characters immediately follow a closing parenthesis.

edited Mar 23, 2011 at 15:13

answered Mar 23, 2011 at 15:08

Wayne

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Jeremy B. Over a year ago

I've clarified the requirement, it should only remove spaces directly after a closing parentheses.

Duniyadnd · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-23 15:17:37Z

0

You could use lookbehind to ensure that there is a paranthesis or something else preceding the space:

(?<=\))\s

------------ OLD ANSWER ----------

If you want to remove all paranthesis, dashes and spaces, you would go with something like this:

/[\s-\(\)]+/g

[something] - would look for anything that is in the brackets (letters s, o, m, e, t, h, i, n, g).

\s = white space

( = paranthesis

) = paranthesis

+ = at least one or more occurance of what is preceding it (which would be paranthesis, white space and dashes)

edited Mar 23, 2011 at 15:17

answered Mar 23, 2011 at 15:10

Duniyadnd

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1 Comment

Jeremy B. Over a year ago

thank you for your answer, I do not want to remove all spaces, that is what it is currently doing. I asked that it only remove spaces following a closing parentheses.

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