Regex - Always remove a specific set of characters in a string

Question

I am trying to create a regex that always removes the following characters in a string:

\ /: *? " < > |

I have a string like the following:

const str = 't""h<i"|s< i/??||/s::>: **a? t:|:e>>s\\t*///';

When I use replace() like the following:

const sanitize = str.replace(/\*|:|\/|"|\?|\\|<|>|\|/g,'');

I get the following:

"this is a test"

This is the desired result. The only time this doesn't work is if there is a single backslash \ in front of the first letter of a word -- it will then also remove the first letter of that word. Example:

const str = 't\his is a \test';

const sanitize = str.replace(/\*|:|\/|"|\?|\\|<|>|\|/g,'');

Will result in:

"this is a est"

How do I remove all backslashes \ without also removing a whitelisted character that happens to be next to the removed blackslash?

https://jsbin.com/jequxugoka/edit?js,console

Answer 1

You should use String.raw to make it so the single backslashes are escaped into double backslashes:

 const str = String.raw`t\his is a \test`; const sanitize = str.replace(/\*|:|\/|"|\?|\\|<|>|\|/g,''); console.log(sanitize);