Javascript regex escape

Question

I have a regular expression like this which extract the content between 2 characters and in this case its between 2 #'s

 (?<=\#)(.*?)(?=\#)

and um using it as follows

var extract = str.match(/(?<=\#)(.*?)(?=\#)/).pop();

but the regex gives errors since I think I need to escape it. How do I correctly apply escape characters for the above regex?

Answer 1

Regex may be overkill for this task.

var result = str.split("#")[1] || "";

• If there is no # in the string, result is the empty string.
• If there is only one # in the string, result is everything after it.
• If there are two or more # in the string, result is the substring between the first and second # .

Answer 2

#(.*?)#

or

#([^#]+)#

Simply use this and grab the group 1 .See demo.

https://regex101.com/r/uE3cC4/14

var re = /#(.*?)#/gm;
var str = 'bazbarfoo#asad#';
var m;

while ((m = re.exec(str)) !== null) {
if (m.index === re.lastIndex) {
re.lastIndex++;
}
// View your result using the m-variable.
// eg m[0] etc.
}