NoRegex

Write Ruby without regex! A gem that provides simple, readable methods to replace complex regular expressions for string validation and manipulation.

Transform Your Code

BEFORE - From complex regex patterns:

validates :email, format: { with: /\A[\w+\-.]+@[a-z\d\-]+(\.[a-z\d\-]+)*\.[a-z]+\z/i }
validates :phone, format: { with: /\A\+?[\d\s\-\(\)]+\z/ }

if params[:search].match?(/\A\d+\z/)
# It's a number
end

user_input.gsub(/[`a-zA-Z0-9]/, '')

AFTER - To simple, readable methods!

validates :email, format: { with: is_email? }
validates :phone, format: { with: is_phone_number? }

if params[:search].is_number?
# It's a number
end

user_input.remove_special_chars

No more googling regex patterns or debugging cryptic expressions!

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'no_regex'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install no_regex

Rails Integration

To use the format: { with: is_number? } syntax in your Rails models or form objects, you need to extend your class with NoRegex::PatternMethods:

class User < ApplicationRecord
extend NoRegex::PatternMethods

validates :email, format: { with: is_email? }
validates :phone, format: { with: is_phone_number? }
end

For form objects:

class MyFormObject
include ActiveModel::Model
extend NoRegex::PatternMethods

validates :search_term, format: { with: is_number? }
end

This makes all the pattern methods available to your validations. Once extended, you can use any of the validation methods in the Format Validations section.

Usage

NoRegex extends Ruby's String, Integer, Float, and other classes with intuitive methods that eliminate the need for regex:

String Methods

require 'no_regex'

# Validation methods - return true/false
"12345".is_number?                    # => true
"[email protected]".is_email?          # => true
"https://example.com".is_url?         # => true
"john_doe".is_username?               # => true

# Manipulation methods - return modified strings
"hello-world".remove_dashes           # => "helloworld"
"abc123xyz".keep_numbers              # => "123"
"HelloWorld".to_snake_case            # => "hello_world"

# Extraction methods - return arrays
"Contact: [email protected]".extract_emails  # => ["[email protected]"]
"Price: $123".extract_numbers               # => ["123"]

Numeric Methods

42.is_positive?                       # => true
123.to_currency                       # => "$123"
3.14.to_percentage                    # => "314.0%"

Validation Methods

  • is_number? - Check if string contains a number
  • is_letters? - Check if string contains only letters
  • is_integer? - Check if string is an integer
  • is_decimal? - Check if string is a decimal number
  • is_alphanumeric? - Check if string contains only letters and numbers
  • is_email? - Check if string is a valid email format
  • is_blank? - Check if string is nil or contains only whitespace
  • is_url? - Check if string is a valid URL format
  • is_phone_number? - Check if string is a valid phone number
  • is_zip_code? - Check if string is a valid ZIP code
  • is_hex_color? - Check if string is a valid hex color
  • is_username? - Check if string is a valid username (letters, numbers, _, -)
  • is_positive_number? - Check if string is a positive number
  • is_uuid? - Check if string is a valid UUID
  • is_credit_card? - Check if string is a valid credit card number
  • is_ssn? - Check if string is a valid SSN
  • is_ipv4? - Check if string is a valid IPv4 address
  • is_time_24h? - Check if string is valid 24-hour time format
  • is_date_yyyy_mm_dd? - Check if string is valid YYYY-MM-DD date format

Manipulation Methods

  • remove_dashes - Remove all dashes from string
  • remove_spaces - Remove all spaces from string
  • remove_special_chars - Remove all special characters, keeping only letters and numbers
  • remove_numbers - Remove all numbers from string
  • remove_letters - Remove all letters from string
  • keep_numbers - Keep only numbers in string
  • keep_letters - Keep only letters in string

Conversion Methods

  • to_snake_case - Convert string to snake_case
  • to_camel_case - Convert string to camelCase

Extraction Methods

  • extract_numbers - Extract all numbers from string (returns array)
  • extract_emails - Extract all email addresses from string (returns array)

Utility Methods

  • word_count - Count words in string
  • truncate(length, ellipsis) - Truncate string to specified length with ellipsis

Format Validators

validates :field, format: { with: is_number? }          # Only digits
validates :field, format: { with: is_letters? }         # Only letters
validates :field, format: { with: is_integer? }         # Integers
validates :field, format: { with: is_decimal? }         # Decimals
validates :field, format: { with: is_alphanumeric? }    # Letters and numbers
validates :field, format: { with: is_email? }           # Email format
validates :field, format: { with: is_phone_number? }    # Phone format
validates :field, format: { with: is_url? }             # URL format
validates :field, format: { with: is_zip_code? }        # ZIP code
validates :field, format: { with: is_hex_color? }       # Hex colors
validates :field, format: { with: is_username? }        # Usernames
validates :field, format: { with: is_positive_number? } # Positive numbers
validates :field, format: { with: is_uuid? }            # UUIDs
validates :field, format: { with: is_credit_card? }     # Credit cards
validates :field, format: { with: is_ssn? }             # SSN format
validates :field, format: { with: is_ipv4? }            # IP addresses
validates :field, format: { with: is_time_24h? }        # 24-hour time
validates :field, format: { with: is_date_yyyy_mm_dd? } # YYYY-MM-DD dates

Custom Validators (Alternative Approach)

class User < ApplicationRecord
validates :phone, number: true
validates :name, letters: { message: "can only contain letters" }
validates :username, alphanumeric: true
validates :email, email_format: true
validates :website, url_format: { allow_blank: true }
end

Examples

# Validation
"12345".is_number?                    # => true
"abc123".is_letters?                  # => false
"[email protected]".is_email?          # => true
"https://example.com".is_url?         # => true

# Manipulation
"hello-world-123".remove_dashes       # => "helloworld123"
"hello world 123".remove_numbers      # => "hello world "
"abc123xyz".keep_numbers              # => "123"
"abc123xyz".keep_letters              # => "abcxyz"
"Hello@World#123!".remove_special_chars # => "HelloWorld123"

# Conversion
"HelloWorld".to_snake_case            # => "hello_world"
"hello_world".to_camel_case           # => "helloWorld"

# Extraction
"Contact: [email protected] or [email protected]".extract_emails
# => ["[email protected]", "[email protected]"]

"Price is $123 or $456".extract_numbers  # => ["123", "456"]

# Utilities
"Hello world, this is a test".word_count  # => 6
"This is a very long string".truncate(15)  # => "This is a ve..."

# Numeric Methods
42.is_positive?                       # => true
-10.is_negative?                      # => true
100.to_currency                       # => "$100"
1234.to_formatted                     # => "1,234"
0.75.to_percentage                    # => "75.0%"

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/Derity/no_regex

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.