Escaping a Javascript string, Unterminated character class error

Question

I keep getting the following error

Uncaught SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: /$_POST['/: Unterminated character class 

I searched a few threads and they all pointed me to the fact the at I am not properly escaping the string. I loaded a php file into a javascript var as a string , then I search through it for the following, but I have tried escaping to no success.

according to List of all characters that should be escaped before put in to RegEx?

These are all the characters that need escaping I believe.

. \ + * ? [ ^ ] $ ( ) { } = ! < > | : -

and here are the code snipets that are failing me. (This is the clean code everything needs escaping)

var n = data.search("$_POST['");
n = res.search("'];");
n = data.search("//hurdle{"); 
n = res.search("}");

If someone could show me how to properly do this, it would be very appreciated. Thank you

• Steve Bennett: How are you attempting to escape these characters? With a \?

Answer 1

You need to escape the dollar and brackets: \$, \[ and \]

For example:

arrayOfMatches = yourString.match(/\$_POST\['/g);

• Konstantino Sparakis: How about the ' , and the $? I try escaping those as well but I still get errors.
• zx81: The g is for getting all the matches in one go. That's just one example, there are a number of JS regex methods, e.g. exec. Here is a decent summary
• Konstantino Sparakis: Thank you! now I'm running into a range error, haha the love of debugging.
• Konstantino Sparakis: edit: I will add the code to the main section in a second I am not sure what it is.

Answer 2

For first expression

data.search(/\$_POST\['/)