Extend expression parser with support for regular expressions

[sergiubologa]

For the code bellow:
math.eval('typeof(/a regexp/)')

the library throws the following error:
Uncaught SyntaxError: Value expected (char 8)

The following code works just fine:
math.eval('typeof(123)') => 'number'
math.typeof(/a regexp/) => RegExp

Is this an issue?

[josdejong]

The expression parser does not support regular expressions, therefore it throws a syntax error "Value expected (char 8)".

If you need support for regexp you could create a function for it and use that:

math.import({
  regexp: math.typed({
    'string': function (pattern) {
      return new RegExp(pattern);
    },
    'string, string': function (pattern, flags) {
      return new RegExp(patter, flags);
    }
  })
});

// create a regexp testing whether a string contains only digits
math.eval('r=regexp("^\\\\d+$")', scope);

// use the created regexp
math.eval('r.test("123")', scope);  // returns true
math.eval('r.test("a23")', scope);  // returns false

[sergiubologa]

Ok, thanks for you answer.
Is there any plan to add support for regular expressions?

[josdejong]

There are no short term plans to integrate support for regular expressions. You're the first one with this request. I will change the title of this issue to "Support for RegExp" and mark it as a feature request.