A word is a unit of information that represents one or more letters i.e., from a-z or A-Z. In this article let’s understand how we can create a regex for words with hyphen and how regex can be matched for a valid string containing hyphen.
Regex (short for regular expression) is a powerful tool used for searching and manipulating text. It is composed of a sequence of characters that define a search pattern. Regex can be used to find patterns in large amounts of text, validate user input, and manipulate strings. It is widely used in programming languages, text editors, and command line tools.
Structure of words with hyphen
- It should have atleast 1 word
- It can optionally have hyphens
- - No special characters are allowed
Regex for checking if words with hyphen is a valid string
Regular Expression-
/([\w-]+)/gmTest string examples for the above regex-
| Input String | Match Output |
|---|---|
| $%^&abcabcabc | does not match |
| rocky-star | matches |
| 34-21 = 13 | does not match |
| pre-independence | matches |
Here is a detailed explanation of the above regex-
/([\w-]+)/gm
1st Capturing Group ([\w-]+)
Match a single character present in the list below [\w-]
+ matches the previous token between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
\w matches any word character (equivalent to [a-zA-Z0-9_])
- matches the character - with index 4510 (2D16 or 558) literally (case sensitive)
Global pattern flags
g modifier: global. All matches (don't return after first match)
m modifier: multi line. Causes ^ and $ to match the begin/end of each line (not only begin/end of string)
Hope this article was useful to match a valid string containing words with hyphen regex pattern. In conclusion, understanding regular expressions (regex) is crucial for effectively searching and manipulating text. In this article, we explored the creation of regex patterns for words with hyphens and how to match valid strings containing hyphens. Regex empowers programmers and text enthusiasts to efficiently manage and analyze textual data, making it an indispensable tool across various programming languages, text editors, and command line utilities.
