Question

11

converting RegExp to String then back to RegExp

rated 0 times [ 16] [ 5] / answers: 1 / hits: 39850 / 8 Years ago, thu, august 25, 2016, 12:00:00

So I have a RegExp regex = /asd/

I am storing it as a as a key in my key-val store system.

So I say str = String(regex) which returns /asd/.

Now I need to convert that string back to a RegExp.

So I try: RegExp(str) and I see //asd//

this is not what I want. It is not the same as /asd/

Should I just remove the first and last characters from the string before converting it to regex? That would get me the desired result in this situation, but wouldn't necessarily work if the RegExp had modifiers like /i or /g

Is there a better way to do this?

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pierce

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3 Years ago

answered 8 Years ago rashawn · Accepted Answer

const regex = /asd/gi;

converting RegExp to String

const obj = {flags: regex.flags, source: regex.source};

const string = JSON.stringify(obj);

then back to RegExp

const obj2 = JSON.parse(string);

const regex2 = new RegExp(obj2.source, obj2.flags);

Requires ES6+.