Match Accented Letters with Regular Expressions
Regular expressions are used for a variety of tasks but the one I see most often is input validation. Names, dates, numbers...we tend to use regular expressions for everything, even when we probably shouldn't.
The most common syntax for checking alphabetic characters is A-z
but what if the string contains accented characters? Characters like ğ
and Ö
will make the regex fail. That's where we need to use Unicode property escapes to check for a broader letter format!
Let's look at how we can use \p{Letter}
and the Unicode flag (u
) to match both standard and accented characters:
// Single word
"Özil".match(/[\p{Letter}]+/gu)
// Word with spaces
"Oğuzhan Özyakup".match(/[\p{Letter}\s]+/gu);
Using regular expressions to validate strings, especially names, is much more difficult than A-z+
. Names and other strings can be very diverse -- let's not insult users by making them provide non-accented letters just to pass validation!
Before we get started, it's worth me spending a brief moment introducing myself to you. My name is Mark (or @integralist if Twitter happens to be your communication tool of choice) and I currently work for BBC News in London England as a principal engineer/tech...
Google Plus provides loads of inspiration for front-end developers, especially when it comes to the CSS and JavaScript wonders they create. Last year I duplicated their incredible PhotoStack effect with both MooTools and pure CSS; this time I'm going to duplicate...
Hey everyone! Before we get started, I just want to say it's damn hard to pick this few favorites on CodePen. Not because, as a co-founder of CodePen, I feel like a dad picking which kid he likes best (RUDE). But because there is just so...
There are plenty of awesome new attributes we've gotten during the HTML5 revolution: placeholder, download, hidden, and more. Each of these attributes provides us a different level of control over an element on the page, but there's a new element attribute that allows...