verbose-regexp

verbose-regexp

This module provides a way to use verbose regular expressions in JavaScript and TypeScript, similar to re.VERBOSE in Python. It provides that white-space at the start and end of lines are ignored, as are newlines, and anything following // to the end of the line.

It allows you to easily write multi-line regular expressions, and to make your regular expressions more self-documenting using formatting and comments.

Example:

    import { rx } from 'verbose-regexp'
    // or: const { rx } = require('verbose-regexp')

    const dateTime = rx`
      (\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}) // date
      T                   // time separator
      (\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}) // time
    `
    console.log(dateTime.exec(new Date().toISOString()))

You can use regular expression flags by accessing them as a property of rx, e.g.:

    const alpha = rx.i`[a-z]+`

Note that if you use multiple flags, they must be in alphabetical order:

    const allAlpha = rx.gi`[a-z]+`

If you want to use a string that would otherwise be ignored (i.e. whitespace or //), you can simply escape it with backslashes or a character class:

    const url = rx.i`
      [ ]*([a-z]+):\/\/  // scheme
      ([^/]+)           // location
      (?:/(.*))         // path
    `