javascript-tutorial / javascript-tutorial/en.javascript.info
Lack of essential detail about regexp lookbehind syntax in "Lookahead and lookbehind" article
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Description
[Part 3 (Additional articles)](https://javascript.info/#tab-3)
[Chapter 7 (Regular expressions)](https://javascript.info/regular-expressions)
[Article 14 (Lookahead and lookbehind)](https://javascript.info/regexp-lookahead-lookbehind)
Why you don't mention that in JS non fixed length regexps (including quantifiers, backreferences etc.) are not allowed inside lookbehind expression ?
First you talk about [lookahead](https://javascript.info/regexp-lookahead-lookbehind#lookahead), and using regexp with quantifier as lookahead condition in your example.
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For example, `\d+(?=\s)`**`(?=.*30)`** looks for `\d+` that is followed by a space `(?=\s)`, and there’s `30` somewhere after it **`(?=.\*30)`**
Right after this you briefly talk about [lookbehind](https://javascript.info/regexp-lookahead-lookbehind#lookbehind) and say it is the same thing but looks behind, without mentioning that it actually cannot do the same thing with non fixed lenght regular expressions (including quantifiers like **\***).
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Research direction
Start with the “Lookahead and lookbehind” article linked in the issue, especially its lookahead and lookbehind sections. Compare the documented examples with JavaScript’s restrictions on non-fixed-length patterns in lookbehind expressions. Done means the article clearly explains the limitation and distinguishes lookahead behavior from lookbehind behavior.
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Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 1/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 38/100