String Regular Expressions with MooTools

By  on  

Whether you like given JavaScript library or not , there are always snippets you can take from the code which accomplish a task you may need to address.  We all know that I looooooove MooTools, but maybe you're a Dojo or jQuery developer that doesn't get a good look at Moo.  The following are a choice selection of regular expression used with MooTools -- maybe you have use for them?

Clean Whitespace

var newString = myString.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');

Camel-Case a Dash-Separated String

var newString = myString.replace(/-\D/g, function(match){
	return match.charAt(1).toUpperCase();
});

Dash-Separate a Camel-Cased String

var newString = myString.replace(/[A-Z]/g, function(match){
	return ('-' + match.charAt(0).toLowerCase());
});

Escape a Regular Expression

var newString = myString.replace(/([-.*+?^${}()|[\]\/\\])/g, '\\$1');

Hex to RGB, RGB to Hex

var hex = myString.match(/^#?(\w{1,2})(\w{1,2})(\w{1,2})$/);
var newString = (hex) ? hex.slice(1).hexToRgb(array) : null;

Term Substitution

var newString = this.replace(regexp || (/\\?\{([^{}]+)\}/g), function(match, name){
	if (match.charAt(0) == '\\') return match.slice(1);
	return (object[name] != undefined) ? object[name] : '';
});

Strip Scripts from a String

var newString = myString.replace(/<script[^>]*>([\s\S]*?)<\/script>/gi, function(all, code){
	scripts += code + '\n';
	return '';
});

Above are just a sampling of regular expression used by MooTools to accomplish tasks.  Most, in fact, are applied as methods to the String native so they are available with *ANY* string!

Recent Features

  • By
    JavaScript Promise API

    While synchronous code is easier to follow and debug, async is generally better for performance and flexibility. Why "hold up the show" when you can trigger numerous requests at once and then handle them when each is ready?  Promises are becoming a big part of the JavaScript world...

  • By
    fetch API

    One of the worst kept secrets about AJAX on the web is that the underlying API for it, XMLHttpRequest, wasn't really made for what we've been using it for.  We've done well to create elegant APIs around XHR but we know we can do better.  Our effort to...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Fancy Navigation with MooTools JavaScript

    Navigation menus are traditionally boring, right? Most of the time the navigation menu consists of some imagery with a corresponding mouseover image. Where's the originality? I've created a fancy navigation menu that highlights navigation items and creates a chain effect. The XHTML Just some simple...

  • By
    MooTools FontChecker Plugin

    There's a very interesting piece of code on Google Code called FontAvailable which does a jQuery-based JavaScript check on a string to check whether or not your system has a specific font based upon its output width. I've ported this functionality to MooTools. The MooTools...

Discussion

  1. Jeffrey

    Technologies will come and go – one library will find favor over the one you are currently using, one scripting language will arise that will make the one you are using look foolish, etc. But regular expressions are one of those things that will be a useful thing to know even on the tumultuous seas of techno-change.

    Good little article – make it a series. A cache of tested regular expressions to crib from is a useful thing to have.

    • Hear, hear!

      Perl was the first programming language I ever learned, so Regular Expressions have always been a primary tool I’ve used no matter the language. I just don’t know what I’d do without them!

      ^_^

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!