Code-Parsing Regular Expressions via Lighter.js

By  on  

Perfecting a regular expression can take a lot of time and testing but once achieved can be a absolutely golden. While looking through the source code of MooTools syntax highlighter Lighter.js I stumbled upon a few code-parsing regular expressions that you might be interested in.

The JavaScript

	// Matches a C style single-line comment.
	slashComments: /(?:^|[^\\])\/\/.*$/gm,
	
	// Matches a Perl style single-line comment.
	poundComments: /#.*$/gm,
	
	// Matches a C style multi-line comment.
	multiComments: /\/\*[\s\S]*?\*\//gm,
	
	// Matches a string enclosed by single quotes.
	aposStrings:   /'[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*'/gm, 
	
	// Matches a string enclosed by double quotes.
	quotedStrings: /"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*"/gm, 
	
	// Matches both.
	strings:       /'[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*'|"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*"/gm,
	
	// Matches a property: .property style.
	properties:    /\.([\w]+)\s*/gi,   
	
	// Matches a method call: .methodName() style.
	methodCalls:   /\.([\w]+)\s*\(/gm, 
	
	// Matches a function call: functionName() style.
	functionCalls: /\b([\w]+)\s*\(/gm,   
	
	// Matches any of the common brackets.
	brackets:      /\{|\}|\(|\)|\[|\]/g, 
	
	// Matches integers, decimals, hexadecimals.
	numbers:       /\b((?:(\d+)?\.)?[0-9]+|0x[0-9A-F]+)\b/gi 

Regular expressions can look heinous so I apologize to anyone whose brains imploded after looking at the above hieroglyphics text. Have useful regular expressions you use often? Share them!

Recent Features

  • By
    Facebook Open Graph META Tags

    It's no secret that Facebook has become a major traffic driver for all types of websites.  Nowadays even large corporations steer consumers toward their Facebook pages instead of the corporate websites directly.  And of course there are Facebook "Like" and "Recommend" widgets on every website.  One...

  • By
    5 Awesome New Mozilla Technologies You’ve Never Heard Of

    My trip to Mozilla Summit 2013 was incredible.  I've spent so much time focusing on my project that I had lost sight of all of the great work Mozillians were putting out.  MozSummit provided the perfect reminder of how brilliant my colleagues are and how much...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Skype-Style Buttons Using MooTools

    A few weeks back, jQuery expert Janko Jovanovic dropped a sweet tutorial showing you how to create a Skype-like button using jQuery. I was impressed by Janko's article so I decided to port the effect to MooTools. The XHTML This is the exact code provided by...

  • By
    Pure CSS Slide Up and Slide Down

    If I can avoid using JavaScript for element animations, I'm incredibly happy and driven to do so.  They're more efficient, don't require a JavaScript framework to manage steps, and they're more elegant.  One effect that is difficult to nail down with pure CSS is sliding up...

Discussion

  1. David: very interesting, could you provide examples for each expression? ty so much!

  2. That’s pretty neat

    I’ve always used http://www.gskinner.com/RegExr/ to text my RegExp

  3. Well, im not a veteran programmer but i did a noobMatcher to test my regExp hehe

    http://vrs.host56.com/noobMatcher/

  4. Thanks for this Tutorial. Can u provide Demo for this.

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