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
    Creating Scrolling Parallax Effects with CSS

    Introduction For quite a long time now websites with the so called "parallax" effect have been really popular. In case you have not heard of this effect, it basically includes different layers of images that are moving in different directions or with different speed. This leads to a...

  • By
    How to Create a RetroPie on Raspberry Pi &#8211; Graphical Guide

    Today we get to play amazing games on our super powered game consoles, PCs, VR headsets, and even mobile devices.  While I enjoy playing new games these days, I do long for the retro gaming systems I had when I was a kid: the original Nintendo...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Create a Photo Stack Effect with Pure CSS Animations or MooTools

    My favorite technological piece of Google Plus is its image upload and display handling.  You can drag the images from your OS right into a browser's DIV element, the images upload right before your eyes, and the albums page displays a sexy photo deck animation...

  • By
    Table Cell and Position Absolute

    If you follow me on Twitter, you saw me rage about trying to make position: absolute work within a TD element or display: table-cell element.  Chrome?  Check.  Internet Explorer?  Check.  Firefox?  Ugh, FML.  I tinkered in the console...and cussed.  I did some researched...and I...

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!