Question

Given the following string I would like to produce an array with each of the key / values.

this my test string:

key1:value1 key2: value2 key3:"value3" key4: "value4" key5:'value5' key6: 'value6'

Expected result:

params[key1] == 'value1'
params[key2] == 'value2'
params[key3] == 'value3'
params[key4] == 'value4'
params[key5] == 'value5'
params[key6] == 'value6'

This is what I have so far but it doesn’t work with the ” or ‘ quotes strings or spaces after the colon.

var re = /([^ ]*):([^ ]*)/g

while (match = re.exec(subject)) {
  params[match[1]] = match[2];
}

Answer 1

You’re close.

 /([^ ]+):\s*(['"]?[^ '"]+['"]?)/g

That should do it. Note that this won’t provide validation, so key1: value1" or key1: 'value1" will still pass. Validation would call for a more complicated pattern.