I'm trying to create a regex to match a string, which has a * placeholder. The problem for me is, that this placeholder could optionally have some characters in front:
I came up with /(.*)(\w)\*(.*)/:
This is ju* an example
This is * an example
T* is just an example
* is just an example
This is just an ex*
This is just an *
I need to get three parts of each string:
So the result should be:
This is|ju|an example
This is|<null>|an example
<null>|T|is just an example
<null>|<null>|is just an example
This is just an|ex|<null>
This is just an|<null>|<null>
What I tried is:
^(.*?)[^\S\n]*([^\s*]*)\*[^\S\n]*(.*)$
See an online demo
^ - Start-line anchor;(.*?) - Your 1st capture group with 0+ (Lazy) characters other than newline;[^\S\n]* - 0+ (Greedy) character that are not non-whitespace characters or newline. I guess you may swap to \s* in your application, but for demonstration purposes I used this;([^\s*]*) - A 2nd capture group to match 0+ (Greedy) characters other than whitespace or asterisks;\*[^\S\n]* - A literal asterisks, followed by 0+ (Greedy) characters that are not non-whitespace or newline;(.*) - A 3rd capture group to catch 0+ (Greedy) characters other than newline;$ - End-line anchor.This seems to match your requirements.
/^(.*?)(\w*)\*(.*)/g
const arr = [
"This is ju* an example",
"This is * an example",
"T* is just an example",
"* is just an example",
"This is just an ex*",
"This is just an *",
];
console.log(
arr.map(x => {
const myRegexp = /^(.*?)(\w*)\*(.*)/g; // new RegExp("", "gm");
const match = myRegexp.exec(x);
return match.map(x => x.trim());
})
);.as-console-wrapper {
max-height: 100vh !important;
}Reference: greedy and lazy matching
Use yourString.split(/(\w**)/)
the responses will be:
[ "This is ", "ju*", " an example" ]
[ "This is ", "*", " an example" ]
[ "", "T*", " is just an example" ]
[ "", "*", " is just an example" ]
[ "This is just an ", "ex*", "" ]
[ "This is just an ", "*", "" ]
handle the blanks and * to match your outcome