How do I match any non-word character at the end of a line or just the end of the line

Question

Using regex, I want to match all non-word characters at the end of a line, or, if there isn't a non-word character, just match the end of the line.

This is what I thought it should be as simple as:

/\W*$/

That is, match zero or more non-word characters, followed by the end of the line.

I tried it at http://gskinner.com/RegExr/ but it's not that simple.

Then, taking it one step further, I also want to match white space at the end of the line, like this:

/[\W\s]*$/

That is, match zero or more characters from the set, non-word characters and white space characters, followed by the end of the line.

Of course, this isn't working either.

At the end of the day I want to replace anything at the end of a line that is not an alphanumeric character with a full stop, using javascript.

Answer 1

Use the .replace method with a direct regex, not a string. The ^ is the "not" character. So anything NOT a alphanumeric.

var good = bad.replace(/[^\w]*$/g, "");

Proof:

> bad = "asd$f   "
"asd$f   "
> bad.replace(/[^\w]*$/g, "")
"asd$f"

Answer 2

My first approach was correct. It was just the regex tool that wasn't playing nicely.

Either /\\W*$/

Or /[^\\w]*$/

Which are obviously the same.

Tested it using this jQuery terminal.