If I hear about regular expressions, it usually takes less than a second for me to fall silent and, if possible, disappear. I had to face them while at the University, and that’s one of the main reasons I got no degree. On the other hand, my wife is using regular expressions daily (she works as a spam analyst), so I can say that, in average, our family has decent knowledge of this topic…
… so I’ll do my best to hang on in here long enough to help those who find JavaScript’s regex capabilities below their knowledge level discover a library that can take things one step forward. Its name is XRegExp, and comes from Steven Levithan, one of the authors behind the notorious Regular Expressions Cookbook, published by O’Reilly.
Since his description should say more than I would, here it is: “XRegExp is an open source (MIT license) JavaScript library that provides an augmented, extensible, cross-browser implementation of regular expressions, including support for additional syntax, flags, and methods.”
The last version at this time is labeled XRegExp 1.0.1, providing no less than 12 functions and methods to make your life easier, as well as allowing you to create and use plugins, adding your own syntax and flags. That’s it, folks! 😉
Compatibility: according to the official site, XRegExp has been tested with Internet Explorer 5.5–8, Firefox 2–3, Safari 3–4, Chrome 1–2, and Opera 9, but I bet browsers like Maxthon or Avant won’t get you stuck, either
