The following regular expression matches MOST object initializer regular expressions written in JavaScript. 

qr{/(?:[^\\/]|\\.)*/[gi]*};

[download]

This basically matches the following JavaScript code: 

var objRegex = /"/;
var objRegex = /'/;
var objRegex = /\\/;
var objRegex = /123[abc]456/;
var objRegex = /\\\\/;
var objRegex = /te'st\/as"df/;
var objRegex = /123[\/]456/;

[download]

BUT fails to match on a valid Regex like this: 

var objRegex = /123[/]456/;

[download]
where there is a single "/" character embedded in [] (this is apparently valid because most special characters do not have to be escaped inside [])... If the regex had the "/" character escaped, then this wouldn't be an issue.

Does anyone know how to improve the regex to match any valid JavaScript object intializer regular expression? (which seem pretty much identical to Perl regular expressions)?

Fixed disappearing square brackets 2002-02-14 dvergin

In reply to Matching an JavaScript object initalizer regex by Incognito

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.