Zero-dependency TypeScript library for regex utilities that go beyond string matching. These are surprisingly hard to come by for any programming language. ✨

• 📚 Documentation
• 🔍 RegExp Equivalence Checker

• 🔗 Set-like operations:
  • .and(...) - Compute intersection of two regex.
  • .not() - Compute the complement of a regex.
  • .without(...) - Compute the difference of two regex.
• ✅ Set-like predicates:
  • .isEquivalent(...) - Check whether two regex match the same strings.
  • .isSubsetOf(...)
  • .isSupersetOf(...)
  • .isDisjointFrom(...)
• 📜 Generate strings:
  • .sample(...) - Generate random strings matching a regex.
  • .enumerate() - Exhaustively enumerate strings matching a regex.
• 🔧 Miscellaneous:
  • .size() - Count the number of strings that a regex matches.
  • .derivative(...) - Compute a Brzozowski derivative of a regex.

npm install @gruhn/regex-utils

import { RB } from '@gruhn/regex-utils'

Generate 5 random email addresses:

const email = RB(/^[a-z]+@[a-z]+\.[a-z]{2,3}$/) for (const str of email.sample().take(5)) { console.log(str) }

ky@e.no cc@gg.gaj z@if.ojk vr@y.ehl e@zx.hzq 

Generate 5 random email addresses, which have exactly 20 characters:

const emailLength20 = email.and(/^.{20}$/) for (const str of emailLength20.sample().take(5)) { console.log(str) }

kahragjijttzyze@i.mv gnpbjzll@cwoktvw.hhd knqmyotxxblh@yip.ccc kopfpstjlnbq@lal.nmi vrskllsvblqb@gemi.wc 

Say we identified a regex in the code base that is prone to catastrophic backtracking and came up with a new version:

const oldRegex = /^(?:[a-zA-Z]\:\\|\\\\)([^\\\/\:\*\?\<\>\"\|]+(\\){0,1})+$/ const newRegex = /^(?:[a-zA-Z]:\\|\\\\)([^\\\/\:*?<>"|]+\\?)+$/

Using .isEquivalent we can verify that the refactored version matches exactly the same strings as the old version. That is, whether oldRegex.test(str) === newRegex.test(str) for every possible input string:

RB(oldRegex).isEquivalent(newRegex) // true

There is also a web interface for checking regex equivalence which also shows counterexample strings if the two regular expressions are not equivalent. The source code is a single HTML file: ./equiv-checker.html.

How do you write a regex that matches HTML comments like:

<!-- This is a comment --> 

A straight forward attempt would be:

<!--.*-->

The problem is that .* also matches the end marker -->, so this is also a match:

<!-- This is a comment --> and this shouldn't be part of it -->

We need to specify that the inner part can be any string that does not contain -->. With .not() (aka. regex complement) this is easy:

import { RB } from '@gruhn/regex-utils' const strContainingCommentEnd = RB(/.*-->.*/) const commentStart = RB('<!--') const commentInner = RB(/^.*-->.*$/).not() const commentEnd = RB('-->') const comment = commentStart.concat(commentInner).concat(commentEnd)

With .toRegExp() we can convert back to a native JavaScript regex:

comment.toRegExp()

/^<!--(---*[^->]|-?[^-])*---*>$/ 

It's difficult to write a single regex for multiple independent constraints. For example, to specify a valid password. But with regex intersections it's very natural:

import { RB } from '@gruhn/regex-utils' const passwordRegex = RB(/^[a-zA-Z0-9]{12,32}$/) // 12-32 alphanumeric characters .and(/[0-9]/) // at least one number .and(/[A-Z]/) // at least one upper case letter  .and(/[a-z]/) // at least one lower case letter

We can convert this back to a native JavaScript RegExp with:

passwordRegex.toRegExp()

We can also use other utilities like .size() to determine how many potential passwords match this regex:

console.log(passwordRegex.size())

2301586451429392354821768871006991487961066695735482449920n 

With .sample() we can generate some of these matches:

for (const str of passwordRegex.sample().take(10)) { console.log(str) }

NEWJIAXQISWT0Wwm lxoegadrzeynezkmtfcIBzzQ9e ypzvhvtwpWk4u6 MSZXXKIKEKWKXLQ8HQ7Ds BCBSFBSMNOLKlgQN5L 8950244600709IW1pg UOTQBLVOTZQWFSAJYBXZNQBEeom0l 520302447164378435bv4dp4ysC 71073970686490eY2Jt4 afgpnxqwUK5B 

In the coding puzzle Advent Of Code 2023 - Day 12 you are given pairs of string patterns. An example pair is .??..??...?##. and 1,1,3. Both patterns describe a class of strings and the task is to count the number of strings that match both patterns.

In the first pattern, . and # stand for the literal characters "dot" and "hash". The ? stands for either . or #. This can be written as a regular expression:

• for # we simply write #
• for . we write o (since . has a special meaning in regular expressions)
• for ? we write (o|#)

So the pattern .??..??...?##. would be written as:

const firstRegex = /^o(o|#)(o|#)oo(o|#)(o|#)ooo(o|#)##o$/

In the second pattern, each digit stands for a sequence of # separated by at least one o. This can also be written as a regular expression:

• For a digit like 3 we write #{3}.
• Between digits we write o+.
• Additionally, arbitrary many o are allowed at the start and end, so we add o* at the start and end.

Thus, 1,1,3 would be written as:

const secondRegex = /^o*#{1}o+#{1}o+#{3}o*$/

To solve the task and find the number of strings that match both regex, we can use .and(...) and .size() from regex-utils. .and(...) computes the intersection of two regular expressions. That is, it creates a new regex which exactly matches the strings matched by both input regex.

const intersection = RB(firstRegex).and(secondRegex)

With .size() we can then determine the number of matched strings:

console.log(intersection.size())

4n 

While at it, we can also try .enumerate() to list all these matches:

for (const str of intersection.enumerate()) { console.log(str) }

oo#ooo#ooo###o o#oooo#ooo###o oo#oo#oooo###o o#ooo#oooo###o 

For a full solution checkout: ./benchmark/aoc2023-day12.ts.

Heavily informed by these papers:

• https://www.khoury.northeastern.edu/home/turon/re-deriv.pdf
• https://courses.grainger.illinois.edu/cs374/fa2017/extra_notes/01_nfa_to_reg.pdf