How to split date by -, ., /, or space?

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#1

I’m trying to use a regex in JavaScript to split a date string, but I’m having trouble getting it to work correctly. I want to split the date by any of the following characters: ‘-’, ‘.’, ‘/’, or a space. For example, given the date string var date = “02-25-2010”;, I’m trying to use the following code: var myregexp2 = new RegExp(“-.”); dateArray = date.split(myregexp2); What is the correct regex to achieve this? Any help would be greatly appreciated! I’m looking for guidance on using javascript split regex techniques to accomplish this.

#2

Hey there! I’ve worked with regex in JavaScript quite a bit, and one effective way to tackle your problem is by using a character class. This allows you to match any of the specified delimiters all at once. You could write it like this:

var date = "02-25-2010";
var dateArray = date.split(/[-.\/\s]/);
console.log(dateArray); // Output: ["02", "25", "2010"]

This regex pattern matches any of the characters you want to split by, making it quite straightforward!

#3

Absolutely, Sndhu! That’s a solid approach. If you’re someone who prefers using the RegExp constructor, you can achieve the same result, just with a slightly different syntax. Here’s how you might do it:

var date = "02-25-2010";
var myregexp = new RegExp("[-.\\/\\s]"); // Remember to escape special characters
var dateArray = date.split(myregexp);
console.log(dateArray); // Output: ["02", "25", "2010"]

Using this method, you still utilize JavaScript global variables effectively, and you can even dynamically create your regex pattern if needed.

#4

Great additions, Sndhu! I’d like to share another technique that could be useful: consider using String.replace() in combination with split(). First, replace the delimiters with a common one, like a comma, then split by that. Here’s an example:

var date = "02-25-2010";
var normalizedDate = date.replace(/[-.\/\s]/g, ','); // Using the global flag to replace all occurrences
var dateArray = normalizedDate.split(',');
console.log(dateArray); // Output: ["02", "25", "2010"]

This method is particularly handy if you want to preprocess the string first. Plus, it really showcases how flexible JavaScript global variables can be when manipulating strings!