Question

I have this code here:

var fields = row.split(/regex goes here/);

I want to split row on each occurrence of

|

but not

*|

How do I write this simple regular expression. I thought there was a not character of sorts but I can’t seem to find a good reference right now.

I know I need to escape the special character | like this \|..but how do I add the not part?

Likely I will just switch my markup to

|*

instead of

*|

and than I can this form I found on MDN – match x only if not followed by y.

x(?!y)

I’m testing here:

http://www.regexpal.com/

Found a good reference here

http://www.regular-expressions.info/reference.html

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp#Special_characters_in_regular_expressions

Answer 1

Don’t split() on the delimiter. Just .match() everything between delimiters:

var fields = row.match(/(?:\*\||[^|])*/g);

Explanation:

(?:    # Match either
 \*\|  # *|
|      # or
 [^|]  # any character except |
)*     # Repeat as needed