RegEx for matching first names in the middle of sentences

Question

I'm trying to capture names in a paragraph, and return them as an array. The sentence with the names contains "names are". Example:

The first sentence. Some second sentence. Third sentence and the names are John, Jane, Jen. Here is the fourth sentence about other stuff.

Desired Output:

[ "John", "Jane", "Jen" ]

Attempt

paragraph.match(/names are ([A-Za-z ]+,{0,1} {0,1})+\./)

Related: [Regex - Repeating Capturing Group](https://stackoverflow.com/q/43461376/218196) — Felix Kling, May 05 '19 at 18:21

adiga · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-05T18:25:06.177

1

You could use names are ([^.]+) to match everything until the next period. Then use split to get the names to an array

const str = 'The first sentence. Some second sentence. Third sentence and the names are John, Jane, Jen. Here is the fourth sentence about other stuff.'

const regex = /names are ([^.]+)/,
      names = str.match(regex)[1],
      array = names.split(/,\s*/)

console.log(array)

edited May 05 '19 at 18:25

answered May 05 '19 at 18:20

adiga

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1

You can also just use a negated character class instead of lazy matching: `([^.]+)\.` – Felix Kling May 05 '19 at 18:22

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 05 '19 at 18:21

You can use split() after matching

let str = `The first sentence. Some second sentence. Third sentence and the names are John, Jane, Jen. Here is the fourth sentence about other stuff.`

let res = str.match(/names are ([A-Za-z ]+,{0,1} {0,1})+\./g)[0].split(/\s+/g).slice(2)
console.log(res)

RegEx for matching first names in the middle of sentences

Desired Output:

Attempt

2 Answers2