[javascript] javascript - match string against the array of regular expressions

Is there a way in JavaScript to get Boolean value for a match of the string against the array of regular expressions?

The example would be (where the 'if' statement is representing what I'm trying to achieve):

var thisExpressions = [ '/something/', '/something_else/', '/and_something_else/'];
var thisString = 'else';

if (matchInArray(thisString, thisExpressions)) {

} 

look this way...

function matchInArray(stringSearch, arrayExpressions){
    var position = String(arrayExpressions).search(stringSearch);
    var result = (position > -1) ? true : false
    return result;
}

So we make a function that takes in a literal string, and the array we want to look through. it returns a new array with the matches found. We create a new regexp object inside this function and then execute a String.search on each element element in the array. If found, it pushes the string into a new array and returns.

// literal_string: a regex search, like /thisword/ig
// target_arr: the array you want to search /thisword/ig for.

function arr_grep(literal_string, target_arr) {
  var match_bin = [];
  // o_regex: a new regex object.
  var o_regex = new RegExp(literal_string);
  for (var i = 0; i < target_arr.length; i++) {
    //loop through array. regex search each element.
    var test = String(target_arr[i]).search(o_regex);
    if (test > -1) {
    // if found push the element@index into our matchbin.
    match_bin.push(target_arr[i]);
    }
  }
  return match_bin;
}

// arr_grep(/.*this_word.*/ig, someArray)

let expressions = [ '/something/', '/something_else/', '/and_something_else/'];

let str = 'else';

here will be the check for following expressions:

if( expressions.find(expression => expression.includes(str) ) ) {

}

using Array .find() method to traverse array and .include to check substring

Consider breaking this problem up into two pieces:

1. filter out the items that match the given regular expression
2. determine if that filtered list has 0 matches in it

const sampleStringData = ["frog", "pig", "tiger"];

const matches = sampleStringData.filter((animal) => /any.regex.here/.test(animal));

if (matches.length === 0) {
  console.log("No matches");
}

Using a more functional approach, you can implement the match with a one-liner using an array function:

ECMAScript 6:

const regexList = [/apple/, /pear/];
const text = "banana pear";
const isMatch = regexList.some(rx => rx.test(text));

ECMAScript 5:

var regexList = [/apple/, /pear/];
var text = "banana pear";
var isMatch = regexList.some(function(rx) { return rx.test(text); });

You could use .test() which returns a boolean value when is find what your looking for in another string:

var thisExpressions = [ '/something/', '/something_else/', '/and_something_else/'];
var thisString = new RegExp('\\b' + 'else' + '\\b', 'i');
var FoundIt = thisString.test(thisExpressions);  
if (FoundIt) { /* DO STUFF */ }

You can join all regular expressions into single one. This way the string is scanned only once. Even with a sligthly more complex regular expression.

var thisExpressions = [ /something/, /something_else/, /and_something_else/];
var thisString = 'else';


function matchInArray(str, expr) {
    var fullExpr = new RegExp(expr
        .map(x=>x.source) // Just if you need to provide RegExp instances instead of strings or ...
        // .map(x=>x.substring(1, x.length -2)  // ...if you need to provide strings enclosed by "/" like in original question.
        .join("|")
    )
    return str.match(fullExpr);

};


if (matchInArray(thisString, thisExpressions)) {
    console.log ("Match!!");
} 

In fact, even with this approach, if you need check the same expression set against multiple strings, this is a few suboptimal because you are building (and compiling) the same regular expression each time the function is called.

Better approach would be to use a function builder like this:

var thisExpressions = [ /something/, /something_else/, /and_something_else/];
var thisString = 'else';

function matchInArray_builder(expr) {
    var fullExpr = new RegExp(expr
        .map(x=>x.source) // Just if you need to provide RegExp instances instead of strings or ...
        // .map(x=>x.substring(1, x.length -2)  // ...if you need to provide strings enclosed by "/" like in original question.
        .join("|")
    )   

    return function (str) {
        return str.match(fullExpr);

    };
};  

var matchInArray = matchInArray_builder(thisExpressions);

if (matchInArray(thisString)) {
    console.log ("Match!!");
}