Regular Expression Methods

Regular expression or RegEx may look like a simple function in an Ajax or JavaScript based application but it’s presence in these forms of applications is very importance since they help in screening the forms of data coming into the application.

The common forms of Regular Expression will screen if the data is created according to the specifications of the developers. But there are other additional functions in RegEx that proactively work with the data provided by users or actively change the data found in the application. Through these functions, developers would be able to build or customize regular expressions according to the specifications of developers.

The following are the forms of regular expressions that could be used by developers in most Ajax or JavaScript based applications:

• Matching Regular Expressions – Matching Regular Expressions is the most popular form of regular expression. In gist, this form of regular expression will evaluate the input of the user and match it with the formula. If the input is not according to the specification of developers, an error message will be displayed or any message created by developers.

This is a relatively strict function since developers would have to constrict every data created so that it will be according to the specifications of the application. The function goes like this:

Match (regular expression formula)

• Replace Regular Expressions – as the name suggests, this form of function for regular expression goes further than the previous function. This type of regular expression is highly recommended for developers who have created an application that have been too familiar with users that any changes could be a little bit difficult. This form of regular expression helps developers match the encoded data and changes them according to the specifications of the developers. The sample code goes this way:

Replace (regular expression formula, replacement function)

• Split – this function will literally break into two the regular function created by developers. This function is usually for internal execution since anything created by developers would come up as an error. Through split, the data entered by the user will be split in half and will be interpreted according to the specification of developers through regular expression.

This is practically the tricky part of regular expression since you will not really know where the spilt on the entered data will come in. The function for split goes this way:

Split (string or the expression)

• Search – as simple as the regular expression execution but with massive limitation. The function will basically search the regular expression and display the said function for the developers. This is highly useful when developers wanted to sure that the regular expression exists first before the application executes any function.

When the search tool for regular expression finds the said function it will return with a confirmation but if there are no related function in the application, it will return as null.

The function goes this way:

Search ()

These are the four functions that could be used by developers for their regular expressions. Through smart implementation of these functions, developers should be able to build a highly efficient Ajax based application.