VerbalExpressions v0.1.2

JavaScript Regular Expressions made easy

VerbalExpressions is a JavaScript library that helps to construct difficult regular expressions.

Other Implementations

You can see an up to date list of all ports on VerbalExpressions.github.io.

• Ruby
• C#
• Python
• Java
• Groovy
• PHP
• Haskell
• C++
• Objective-C

If you would like to contribute another port (which would be awesome!), please open an issue specifying the language. A repo in the VerbalExpressions organization will be created for it. Please don't open PRs for other languages against this repo.

How to get started

In the browser

<script type="text/javascript" src="VerbalExpressions.js"></script>

On the server (node.js)

Install:

npm install verbal-expressions

Require:

var VerEx = require("verbal-expressions");

Running tests

$ grunt
(or)
$ grunt test

Creating a minified version

This will generate a minified version of VerbalExpressions.js (aptly named VerbalExpressions.min.js) in a dist folder.

$ grunt build

A source map will also be created in the same folder, so you can use the original unminified source file (copied to dist as well) for debugging purposes.

Examples

Here's a couple of simple examples to give an idea of how VerbalExpressions works:

Testing if we have a valid URL

// Create an example of how to test for correctly formed URLs
var tester = VerEx()
            .startOfLine()
            .then( "http" )
            .maybe( "s" )
            .then( "://" )
            .maybe( "www." )
            .anythingBut( " " )
            .endOfLine();

// Create an example URL
var testMe = "https://www.google.com";

// Use RegExp object's native test() function
if( tester.test( testMe ) ) alert( "We have a correct URL "); // This output will fire
else alert( "The URL is incorrect" );

console.log( tester ); // Ouputs the actual expression used: /^(http)(s)?(\:\/\/)(www\.)?([^\ ]*)$/

Replacing strings

// Create a test string
var replaceMe = "Replace bird with a duck";

// Create an expression that seeks for word "bird"
var expression = VerEx().find( "bird" );

// Execute the expression like a normal RegExp object
var result = expression.replace( replaceMe, "duck" );

alert( result ); // Outputs "Replace duck with a duck"

Shorthand for string replace:

var result = VerEx().find( "red" ).replace( "We have a red house", "blue" );
alert( result ); // Outputs "We have a blue house"

API documentation

You can find the API documentation at the wiki pages.

A little word for a big help

I'd like to promote a special thank-you to Ben Nadel for his great article about extending native JS objects

Contributions

Clone the repo and fork: git clone https://github.com/jehna/VerbalExpressions.git.

Pull requests are warmly welcome!

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