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.

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!

Check out these slide decks for handy Github & git tips:

raloliver/JSVerbalExpressions