Javascript regex part 5 quick advanced shortcuts

Intro

In previous blogs we looked at matching ranges of letters and numbers using []. Now we will take a look at some shorter syntax for looking at matching a range of letters and numbers.

Matching all letters and numbers

Previously when we wanted to search for all letter and numbers in the alphabet we had to use [a-z].

While there isn't a shortcut for letters only, there is a shortcut to search for letters and numbers using \w:

let short = /\w/ let myNumber = 23 let myPlayer = "Jordan" short.test(myNumber) //true short.test(myPlayer) // true 

You can also use /W if you want to search everything but numbers and letters:

let short = /\W/ let myNumber = "45*" let myPlayer = "Jordan!" myNumber.match(short) //* myPlayer.match(short) //! 

Match all numbers

If you want to match all the numbers the shortcut for that is \d :

let movieName = "2002: Not A Space Odyssey"; let numRegex = /\d/g; // Change this line let result = movieName.match(numRegex).length; console.log(result) // 4 

If you want to match all non numbers use \D :

let movieName = "2002: Not A Space Odyssey"; let numRegex = /\D/g; // Change this line let result = movieName.match(numRegex).length; console.log(result) //21