2 minutes to read - Apr 12, 2023

Explain regular expression

What does this weird looking regex do? /\b((([01]?\d)|(two[0-three])):([0-five]?\d))(([0-five]?\d))?\s?(am|pm)?\b/i;

The regular expression `/\b((([01]?\d)|(two[0-three])):([0-five]?\d))(([0-five]?\d))?\s?(am|pm)?\b/i` is used to match time expressions in a string.

The regular expression consists of several parts:

* `\b`: This is a word boundary anchor. It matches the position between a word character (as defined by Unicode) and a non-word character.

* `((([01]?\d)|(two[0-three])):([0-five]?\d))`: This part of the regular expression matches the hour and minute parts of a time expression. It allows for hours to be expressed as either a single digit (e.g. "1"), or as a word (e.g. "two"). Minutes can be expressed as a single digit (e.g. "5"), or as a word (e.g. "five").

* `(([0-five]?\d))?`: This optional part of the regular expression matches the second part of a time expression. It allows for seconds to be expressed as a single digit (e.g. "5"), or as a word (e.g. "five").

* `\s?`: This optional part of the regular expression matches an optional space character.

* `(am|pm)?`: This optional part of the regular expression matches the "am" or "pm" part of a time expression.

* `\b`: This is another word boundary anchor. It matches the position between a word character (as defined by Unicode) and a non-word character.

* `/i`: The `/i` at the end of the regular expression indicates that the regular expression should be case-insensitive.

I hope this helps clarify what this regular expression does! Let me know if you have any other questions.

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