delims

delims

Generate RegExp for delimiters, to be used with templates, files or data streams.

Getting Started

To install the module with npm, run the following in the command line:

npm i delims --save

To install with bower, run:

bower install delims --save

Use within your application with the following line of JavaScript:

var Delims = require('delims');
var delims = new Delims();

API

.create

delims.create(array, options);

• array:

Build custom delimiter regex with the given options.

Example:

By default, if no options are defined delims.create() generates regex for front-matter:

var matter = delims.create().evaluate;
//=> '/^---([\\s\\S]+?)---([\\s\\S]+|\\s?)$/'

Customize:

To customize, pass the delimiters you want to use in the form of an array. Here a couple examples:

var matter = delims.create(['~~~', '~~~']).evaluate;
//=> '/^~~~([\\s\\S]+?)~~~([\\s\\S]+|\\s?)$/';

var matter = delims.create(['~{3}', '~{3}']).evaluate;
//=> '/^~{3}([\\s\\S]+?)~{3}([\\s\\S]+|\\s?)$/';

Read more about delimiters.

.templates

Convenience method for generating delimiter regex for templates with the necessary options pre-defined.

Example:

Let's say you want to use curly braces as delimiters for Lo-Dash templates instead of angle brackes, e.g. {%= name %}.

var settings = delims.templates(['{{', '}}']);

// use it like this
var tmpl = _.template('{%= name %}', {name: 'Jon'}, settings);
console.log(tmpl);
//=> Jon

The full object returned looks something like:

{
  beginning: '',
  matter: '([\\s\\S]+?)',
  body: '',
  end: '',
  flags: 'g',
  noncapture: false,
  delims: [ '{%', '%}' ],
  open: '{%',
  close: '%}',
  evaluate: /{%([\s\S]+?)%}/g,
  interpolate: /{%=([\s\S]+?)%}/g,
  escape: /{%-([\s\S]+?)%}/g
}

delimiters

Type: Array

Default: ['---', '---']

An array of strings is appropriate for typical use cases, with the first item in the array being the "opening" delimiter, and the second item being the "closing" delimiter. In cases when multiple delimiters are required, e.g. --- or ~~~, an array of arrays may be passed in, where the first array will be used as opening delimiters and the second array will be used as closing delimiters.

Additionally, when multiple arrays are passed in the generated delimiters will be wrapped in non-capturing RegExp groups. For example, this:

delims([
  ['---', '~~~'], // delimiter 1
  ['---', '~~~']  // delimiter 2
]);

will result in something like this:

// for clarity, only the regex for delimiters is shown here
(?:---|~~~)/*other regex*/(?:---|~~~)

(Warning! Passing in multiple delimiters is a good way to cause delimiter collision, you best avoid doing so accept for running tests. Don't say I didn't warn you!)

options

An object of options may be passed as a second parameter. Example:

delims(['---', '---'], options);

Here are the available options and their defaults, starting with boundary options:

Boundary options

In addition to the delimiters themselves, these additional boundary options are available for increased flexibility.

matter

Type: Boolean

Default: ([\s\S]+?)

This is the "content" between the delimiters. YAML Front Matter being the inspiration for matter. See the examples.

body

Type: Boolean

Default: ([\s\S]+|\s?)

The "content" after the delims

RegExp Options

beginning

Type: Boolean

Default: ^

^ Matches beginning of input. See the Mozilla RegEx documentation.

end

Type: Boolean

Default: $

$ Matches end of input. See the Mozilla RegEx documentation.

escape

Type: Boolean

Default: false

Escape custom regex used for delimiters. E.g. ['{%', '%}'] will be escaped to ['\\{\\%', '\\%\\}'] before being passed to new RegExp().

noncapture

Type: Boolean

Default: false

Build a non-capture group. Disabled by default, but enabled by default when multiple delimiters are passed in.

flags

Type: Boolean

Default: undefined

• g: global match
• i: ignore case
• m: multiline, so that beginning and end characters, ^ and $, work over multiple lines. See the Mozilla RegEx documentation.

Examples

A delimiter is a sequence of one or more characters used to specify the boundary between separate, independent regions in plain text or other data streams. --Wikipedia

YAML Front Matter

---

Lo-Dash Templates

---

Author

Jon Schlinkert

• twitter.com/jonschlinkert
• github.com/jonschlinkert

License

Copyright (c) 2014 Jon Schlinkert, contributors. Released under the MIT license