brace-expansion

What is brace-expansion?

The brace-expansion npm package is a library that allows users to generate an array of strings based on a pattern that includes braces. It is inspired by the brace expansion feature in shells like Bash and Zsh. This package can be used to expand expressions with braces to form combinations or sequences.

What are brace-expansion's main functionalities?

Generating combinations

This feature allows you to generate combinations from a pattern. The above code will output an array: ['file-a.jpg', 'file-b.jpg', 'file-c.jpg'].

const braceExpansion = require('brace-expansion');
console.log(braceExpansion('file-{a,b,c}.jpg'));

Generating sequences

This feature generates sequences based on a numeric range. The above code will output an array: ['file-1.jpg', 'file-2.jpg', 'file-3.jpg'].

const braceExpansion = require('brace-expansion');
console.log(braceExpansion('file-{1..3}.jpg'));

Nested expansions

This feature supports nested braces for more complex patterns. The above code will output an array: ['file-a.jpg', 'file-b1.jpg', 'file-b2.jpg', 'file-c.jpg'].

const braceExpansion = require('brace-expansion');
console.log(braceExpansion('file-{a,b{1,2},c}.jpg'));

Other packages similar to brace-expansion

minimatch

Minimatch is a minimal matching utility that works with patterns similar to those in shell scripting. It is often used for matching file names and provides functionality similar to brace-expansion but with a broader set of pattern matching features.

glob

Glob is a package that allows pattern matching based on the Unix shell's glob syntax. It includes brace expansion as part of its pattern matching capabilities, but it is primarily used for file system operations, such as finding files that match a given pattern.

micromatch

Micromatch is a highly optimized and faster alternative to minimatch and glob. It provides advanced pattern matching with a focus on performance. It supports brace expansion and is often used in build tools and file watchers.

README

brace-expansion

Brace expansion, as known from sh/bash, in JavaScript.

Example

var expand = require('brace-expansion');

expand('file-{a,b,c}.jpg')
// => ['file-a.jpg', 'file-b.jpg', 'file-c.jpg']

expand('-v{,,}')
// => ['-v', '-v', '-v']

expand('file{0..2}.jpg')
// => ['file0.jpg', 'file1.jpg', 'file2.jpg']

expand('file-{a..c}.jpg')
// => ['file-a.jpg', 'file-b.jpg', 'file-c.jpg']

expand('file{2..0}.jpg')
// => ['file2.jpg', 'file1.jpg', 'file0.jpg']

expand('file{0..4..2}.jpg')
// => ['file0.jpg', 'file2.jpg', 'file4.jpg']

expand('file-{a..e..2}.jpg')
// => ['file-a.jpg', 'file-c.jpg', 'file-e.jpg']

expand('file{00..10..5}.jpg')
// => ['file00.jpg', 'file05.jpg', 'file10.jpg']

expand('{{A..C},{a..c}}')
// => ['A', 'B', 'C', 'a', 'b', 'c']

expand('ppp{,config,oe{,conf}}')
// => ['ppp', 'pppconfig', 'pppoe', 'pppoeconf']

API

var expand = require('brace-expansion');

var expanded = expand(str)

Return an array of all possible and valid expansions of str. If none are found, [str] is returned.

Valid expansions are:

/^(.*,)+(.+)?$/
// {a,b,...}

A comma seperated list of options, like {a,b} or {a,{b,c}} or {,a,}.

/^-?\d+\.\.-?\d+(\.\.-?\d+)?$/
// {x..y[..incr]}

A numeric sequence from x to y inclusive, with optional increment. If x or y start with a leading 0, all the numbers will be padded to have equal length. Negative numbers and backwards iteration work too.

/^-?\d+\.\.-?\d+(\.\.-?\d+)?$/
// {x..y[..incr]}

An alphabetic sequence from x to y inclusive, with optional increment. x and y must be exactly one character, and if given, incr must be a number.

For compatibility reasons, the string ${ is not eligible for brace expansion.

Installation

With npm do:

npm install brace-expansion

Contributors

• Julian Gruber
• Isaac Z. Schlueter

License

(MIT)

Copyright (c) 2013 Julian Gruber <[e-mail]>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.