How do I split this string using JavaScript?

Question

I have this string

(<<b>>+<<10>>)*<<c>>-(<<x>>+<<y>>) 

Using JavaScript, what is the fastest way to parse this into

[b, 10, c, x, y]

• StackFlower: Is the structure of the original string always the same?
• Spudley: I suggest reading about the XY Problem. It would be interesting to see more about the actual problem you're trying to solve here. It looks like you're trying to write a parsing engine? Perhaps if you expand a bit on that, you might get more answers that are actually useful rather than directly solving the sub-problem you've posed in the question currently.
• David Thomas: Can I ask where is that string coming from, and what is the intended purpose of the angle-brackets?

Answer 1

Try this:

'(<<b>>+<<10>>)*<<c>>-(<<x>>+<<y>>)'.match(/[^(<+>)*-]+/g)

• Benubird: Or even match(/[0-9a-z]+/g)
• HIRA THAKUR: how do i understand the regex inside match??can you explain..just asking??
• CD..: @MESSIAH: its matching chars that are not (<+>)*-.

Answer 2

I'd suggest:

"(<<b>>+<<10>>)*<<c>>-(<<x>>+<<y>>)".match(/[a-z0-9]+/g);
// ["b", "10", "c", "x", "y"]

JS Fiddle demo.

References:

• JavaScript regular expressions.

Answer 3

var str = '(<<b>>+<<10>>)*<<c>>-(<<x>>+<<y>>) ';
var arr = str.match(/<<(.*?)>>/g);
// arr will be ['<<b>>', '<<10>>', '<<c>>', '<<x>>', '<<y>>']
arr = arr.map(function (x) { return x.substring(2, x.length - 2); });
// arr will be ['b', '10', 'c', 'x', 'y']

Or you can also use exec to get the capture groups directly:

var regex = /<<(.*?)>>/g;
var match;
while ((match = regex.exec(str))) {
 console.log(match[1]);
}

This regular expression has the benefit that you can use anything in the string, including other alphanumerical characters, without having them matched automatically. Only those tokens in << >> are matched.

Answer 4

use regex

var pattern=/[a-zA-Z0-9]+/g
your_string.match(pattern).