Match non-English words using Regex in JavaScript

user_10449848 0
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Here is an example sentence:

क्या आप क्लोज़अप करते हैं

I want to extract the first word क्या from this sentence using Regex. I can do so in English by using (^\w+) but that doesn't work with other alphabets.

How should I proceed?

javascript regex
3 Answers

You can add the u flag for Unicode support. That way you can specify patterns that include character properties, such as \p{N} for numbers in any language (Arabic, Chinese, ...).

const str = 'क्या आप क्लोज़अप करते हैं ';

console.log('Letters and accent marks: ' + str.match(/^[\p{L}\p{M}]+/u))
console.log('Anything but space: ' + str.match(/^[^\p{Zs}]+/u))

Result:

Letters and accent marks: क्या
Anything but space: क्या

Explanation:

  • both regex use ^ to anchor at the beginning
  • regex 1: [\p{L}\p{M}]+ - one or more letters and accent marks
  • regex 2: [^\p{Zs}]+ - anything that is not a space (includes all Unicode spaces)
  • the u flag enables Unicode so that you can use \p{...} Unicode patterns

See details at https://javascript.info/regexp-unicode

user_74754500

You can use this regex to extract first word

^[\pL]+
user_138427190

Try following regex

[^\x00-\x7F]+
user_35600690
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