Javascript regex match (random string in the middle) [closed]

Question

I want to test if a string can match a pattern in javascript

problem is there is a random string in the middle pattern: "account/os/some_random_string/call_back"

so a string look like below will match

var mystring = "account/os/1234567/call_back"

thanks

Answer 1

You want a regex for starts with account/os/ and ends with /call_back, here's one:

/^account\/os\/.*\/call_back$/

.* will match any random string (including the empty string.). If you want a minimum length on the random string you change the *:

.*    : 0 or more characters
.+    : 1 or more characters
.{n,} : n or more characters (replace n with an actual number)

Answer 2

Well, it depends. If you want every single character between account/os/ and /call_back, use this:

var randomStr = mystring.match(/account\/os\/(.*)\/call_back/)[1];

The match will return an array with 2 elements, the first one with the entire match, the 2nd one with the group (.*). If you are completely sure that you have at least one character there, replace * with +.

If you know something more specific about the text you have to collect, here are some replacements for the .(dot is matching almost everything):

[A-z] for any of A, B, .. , Y, Z, a, b, .. , y, z
[0-9] for any digit

You can mix then and go fancy, like this:

[A-Ea-e0-36-8]

So, your pattern may look like this one:

/account\/os\/([A-Ea-e0-36-8]*)\/call_back/

Your example have a number there, so you are probably looking for:

/account\/os\/([0-9]*)\/call_back/

or

/account\/os\/(\d*)\/call_back/

.. it's the same thing.

Hope that helps.

Edit: What JS answer doesn't have a jsfiddle? http://jsfiddle.net/U2Jhw/