How can I use extract a string within a string of text where the ending anchor has parentheses using-CodePudding

So I have a problem and this is my first time asking within this community, so please be gentle. I am trying to extract a string within another string but the problem is that the end string has parentheses and that is messing with the regular expression. I am trying to capture the company name, "SMITH PSYCHIATRIC, INC." using "of" and ("Customer") as the beginning and end anchors.

My sample is:

I, Fred Smith, HEREBY CERTIFY that I am MD of SMITH PSYCHIATRIC, INC. ("Customer"), an entity organized under the laws of the State of CA.

I was trying to use (?<=of).*(?=("Customer")) but the parentheses of ("Customer") is messing with the regular expression.

I did try to excape the parentheses like (?<=of).*(?=\("Customer"\)) but it still comes back invalid.

Thank you for your help.

CodePudding user response：

Welcome to SO, Andrew. You can follow the below code pattern to get what you need.

String Object :

I, Fred Smith, HEREBY CERTIFY that I am MD of SMITH PSYCHIATRIC, INC. ("Customer"), an entity organized under the laws of the State of CA.

You need :

"SMITH PSYCHIATRIC, INC."

You can follow this code :

"use strict";
const stringObj =
  'I, Fred Smith, HEREBY CERTIFY that I am MD of SMITH PSYCHIATRIC, INC. ("Customer"), an entity organized under the laws of the State of CA.';

// let pattern = /(?<=of).*(?=("Customer"))/;
let pattern = /(?<=of ).*(?=\s[(])/;
 
//output : SMITH PSYCHIATRIC, INC.
console.log(pattern.exec(stringObj)[0]);

Pattern description : get the matching characters between "of" and " (". Note the space before "(". In case, there is no space in the string object, you can remove the "\s" in the pattern.

CodePudding user response：

You are right about escaping the parenthesis. You can use a capture group without lookarounds, and get the group 1 value:

\bof\s (.*?)\s*\("Customer"\)

Regex demo

const s = 'I, Fred Smith, HEREBY CERTIFY that I am MD of SMITH PSYCHIATRIC, INC. ("Customer"), an entity organized under the laws of the State of CA.';
const regex = /\bof\s (.*?)\s*\("Customer"\)/;
const m = s.match(regex);

if (m) console.log(m[1]);