JavaScript Regular Expressions

and
Exception Handling
Prof . N. Nalini
AP(Sr)
SCOPE
VIT
VELLORE
 What is a regular expression?
/[a-zA-Z_\-]+@(([a-zA-Z_\-])+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,4}/

• regular expression ("regex"): describes a pattern of text

 can test whether a string matches the expr's pattern
 can use a regex to search/replace characters in a string
 very powerful, but tough to read

• regular expressions occur in many places:

 text editors (TextPad) allow regexes in search/replace
 languages: JavaScript; Java Scanner, String split
 Unix/Linux/Mac shell commands (grep, sed, find, etc.)
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 String regexp methods
.match(regexp) returns first match for this string
against the given regular
expression; if global /g flag is
used, returns array of all matches
.replace(regexp, text) replaces first occurrence of the
regular expression with the given
text; if global /g flag is used,
replaces all occurrences
.search(regexp) returns first index where the
given regular expression occurs
.split(delimiter[,limit]) breaks apart a string into an array
of strings using the given regular
as the delimiter; returns the
array of tokens

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 Regex flags / modifiers
/pattern/g global; match/replace all occurrences
/pattern/i case-insensitive
/pattern/m multi-line mode
/pattern/y "sticky" search, starts from a given index

• flags can be combined:

/abc/gi matches all occurrences of abc, AbC, aBc, ABC, ...

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 Basic regexes
/abc/

• a regular expression literal in JS is written /pattern/

• the simplest regexes simply match a given substring

• the above regex matches any line containing "abc"

 YES : "abc", "abcdef", "defabc", ".=.abc.=."
 NO : "fedcba", "ab c", "AbC", "Bash", ...

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 String match
string.match(regex)

• if string fits pattern, returns matching text; else null

 can be used as a Boolean truthy/falsey test:
if (name.match(/[a-z]+/)) { ... }

• g after regex for array of global matches

 "obama".match(/.a/g) returns ["ba", "ma"]

• i after regex for case-insensitive match

 name.match(/Mary/i) matches "mary", "MaRY"
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 String replace
string.replace(regex, "text")

• replaces first occurrence of pattern with the given text

 var state = "Mississippi";
state.replace(/s/, "x") returns "Mixsissippi"

• g after regex to replace all occurrences

 state.replace(/s/g, "x") returns "Mixxixxippi"

• returns the modified string as its result; must be stored

 state = state.replace(/s/g, "x");

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 Special characters
| means OR
 /abc|def|g/ matches lines with "abc", "def", or "g"
 precedence: ^Subject|Date: vs. ^(Subject|Date):
 There's no AND & symbol.

() are for grouping

 /(Homer|Marge) Simpson/ matches lines containing
"Homer Simpson" or "Marge Simpson"

\ starts an escape sequence

 many characters must be escaped: / \ $ . [ ] ( ) ^ * + ?
 "\.\\n" matches lines containing ".\n"
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 Wildcards and anchors
. (a dot) matches any character except \n
 /.oo.y/ matches "Doocy", "goofy", "LooPy", ...
 use \. to literally match a dot . character

^ matches the beginning of a line; $ the end

 /^if$/ matches lines that consist entirely of if

\< demands that pattern is the beginning of a word;

\> demands that pattern is the end of a word
 /\<for\>/ matches lines that contain the word "for"

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 Quantifiers: * + ?
* means 0 or more occurrences
 /abc*/ matches "ab", "abc", "abcc", "abccc", ...
 /a(bc)/" matches "a", "abc", "abcbc", "abcbcbc", ...
 /a.*a/ matches "aa", "aba", "a8qa", "a!?_a", ...

+ means 1 or more occurrences

 /a(bc)+/ matches "abc", "abcbc", "abcbcbc", ...
 /Goo+gle/ matches "Google", "Gooogle", "Goooogle",
...

? means 0 or 1 occurrences
 /Martina?/ matches lines with "Martin" or "Martina"
 /Dan(iel)?/ matches lines with "Dan" or "Daniel"
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 More quantifiers
{min,max} means between min and max occurrences
 /a(bc){2,4}/ matches lines that contain
"abcbc", "abcbcbc", or "abcbcbcbc"

• min or max may be omitted to specify any number

 {2,} 2 or more
 {,6} up to 6
 {3} exactly 3

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 Character sets
[ ] group characters into a character set;
will match any single character from the set
 /[bcd]art/ matches lines with "bart", "cart", and "dart"
 equivalent to /(b|c|d)art/ but shorter

• inside [], most modifier keys act as normal characters

 /what[.!*?]*/ matches "what", "what.", "what!",
"what?**!", ...

– Exercise : Match letter grades e.g. A+, B-, D.

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 Character ranges
• inside a character set, specify a range of chars with -
 /[a-z]/ matches any lowercase letter
 /[a-zA-Z0-9]/ matches any letter or digit

• an initial ^ inside a character set negates it

 /[^abcd]/ matches any character but not a, b, c, or d

• inside a character set, - must be escaped to be matched

 /[\-+]?[0-9]+/ matches optional - or +, followed by at
least one digit
– Exercise : Match phone numbers, e.g. 206-685-2181 .
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 Built-in character ranges
• \b word boundary (e.g. spaces between words)
• \B non-word boundary
• \d any digit; equivalent to [0-9]
• \D any non-digit; equivalent to [^0-9]
• \s any whitespace character; [ \f\n\r\t\v...]
• \S any non-whitespace character
• \w any word character; [A-Za-z0-9_]
• \W any non-word character
• \xhh, \uhhhh the given hex/Unicode character

 /\w+\s+\w+/ matches two space-separated words

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 Back-references
• text "captured" in () is given an internal number;
use \number to refer to it elsewhere in the pattern
 \0 is the overall pattern,
 \1 is the first parenthetical capture, \2 the second, ...
 Example: "A" surrounded by same character: /(.)A\1/

 variations
– (?:text) match text but don't capture
– a(?=b) capture pattern b but only if preceded by a
– a(?!b) capture pattern b but only if not preceded by a

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 Replacing with back-references
• you can use back-references when replacing text:
 refer to captures as $number in the replacement string
 Example: to swap a last name with a first name:
var name = "Durden, Tyler";
name = name.replace(/(\w+),\s+(\w+)/, "$2 $1");
// "Tyler Durden"

– Exercise : Reformat phone numbers from 206-685-2181

format to (206) 685.2181 format.

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 The RegExp object
new RegExp(string)
new RegExp(string, flags)

• constructs a regex dynamically based on a given string

var r = /ab+c/gi; is equivalent to
var r = new RegExp("ab+c", "gi");

 useful when you don't know regex's pattern until runtime

– Example: Prompt user for his/her name, then search for it.
– Example: The empty regex (think about it).

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 exec() and test()
• exec() - Tests for a match in a string. Returns the first
match

• Test()-Tests for a match in a string. Returns true or false

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 Working with RegExp
• in a regex literal, forward slashes must be \ escaped:
/http[s]?:\/\/\w+\.com/

• in a new RegExp object, the pattern is a string, so the

usual escapes are necessary (quotes, backslashes, etc.):
new RegExp("http[s]?://\\w+\\.com")

• a RegExp object has various properties/methods:

 properties: global, ignoreCase, lastIndex,
multiline, source, sticky; methods: exec, test
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 Regexes in editors and tools
• Many editors allow regexes in their Find/Replace feature

• many command-line Linux/Mac tools support regexes

grep -e "[pP]hone.*206[0-9]{7}" contacts.txt

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 JavaScript Exception
• When an error occurs, JavaScript will normally stop and
generate an error message.
• The try statement allow to define a block of code to be
tested for errors while it is being executed.
• The catch statement allows to define a block of code to
be executed, if an error occurs in the try block.
• The JavaScript statements try and catch come in pairs:

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 JavaScript Error Types
• The Six JavaScript Error Types
 EvalError: Raised when the eval() functions is used in an incorrect manner.
 RangeError: Raised when a numeric variable exceeds its allowed range.
 ReferenceError: Raised when an invalid reference is used.
 SyntaxError: Raised when a syntax error occurs while parsing JavaScript code.
 TypeError: Raised when the type of a variable is not as expected.
 URIError: Raised when the encodeURI() or decodeURI() functions are used in an
incorrect manner.

• JavaScript will actually create an Error object with two

properties: name and message.
– Name : Error name.
– For instance, for an undefined variable that’s "ReferenceError".
– Message : Textual message about error details.
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Error message and name
EX:1(adddlert is not defined)

EX:2

EX:3 (Type Error)

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 JavaScript Exception
The throw Statement
• The throw statement allows you to create a custom error.
• Technically you can throw an exception (throw an error).
• The exception can be a JavaScript String, a Number, a Boolean or an Object:

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The finally Statement

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