How can I search for regular expressions within webpages using Google Chrome or IE?

Question

How can I search for regular expressions like 'foo|bar' on webpages using Google Chrome or IE? I'm aware of the "Regular Expression Searcher" extension, but it does not work for me. (Nothing happens when I hit slash.) The reviews on the web store indicate that this is a common problem for many users.

Answer 1

Regular Expression Search from Google Chrome.

A simple search utility that allows you to search a web page using regular expression.

Features under development

• toggle through found results
• improved UI
• toggle between case sensitivity
• create shortcut for toggling the extension
• Allow pressing "Enter" key when searching (instead of clicking on search button)

Important Notes
This is a page action extension so it won't work right away on the page you have already opened. I recommend restart your browser before start using this extension. You can also try to refresh your opened page.

Answer 2

Using Javascript to match regular expressions

Maybe you want try this at chrome's console:

var p=/.*(regu).+?\ /gi; console.log( document.body.innerText.match(p) );

Just open console, copy and paste above to consele and hit enter. You can test it here at this page.
This can be improved if it fits in.

Here we print to console match indexes and matched text. Here we try to match text that contains regu, 20 chars before (or less if start of line) and 10 chars after (or less if eol).

var p=/.{0,20}regu[^ \n]+[^\n]{0,10}/gi;
while (m = p.exec(document.body.innerText)) { 
    console.log( 'Index: '+m.index+' Match: '+m ); }

Also try this, it will paint background of all matches on page red, rexexp is not perfect but at least it should not mess with HTML tags:

var p=/(\>{1}[^\n\<]*?)([^\n\<]{0,30}regu[^\n\<]{0,10})/gi,b=document.body;
b.innerHTML=b.innerHTML.replace(p,'$1<span style="background-color:red;">$2</span>');

Bookmarking this:

Another way to use this is through javascript: protocol (same code as just above):

javascript:(function(){var p=/(\>{1}[^\n\<]*?)([^\n\<]{0,30}regu[^\n\<]{0,10})/gi,b=document.body;b.innerHTML=b.innerHTML.replace(p,'$1<span style="background-color:red;">$2</span>');})();

For example, using javascript: protocol one can insert a little search box to any web page for searching regexp's.
I think that you already know that simple regexp can also used to remove red matches from page.
If I continue to develop this for few more hours we may have search plugin that fit in bookmark :)

Answer 3

not really a search, but I found this regexp highlighter (that I found somewhere) quite useful, and works for all browsers.

javascript:(function(){var%20count=0,%20text,%20regexp;text=prompt(%22Search%20regexp:%22,%20%22%22);if(text==null%20||%20text.length==0)return;try{regexp=new%20RegExp(%22(%22%20+%20text%20+%22)%22,%20%22i%22);}catch(er){alert(%22Unable%20to%20create%20regular%20expression%20using%20text%20'%22+text+%22'.\n\n%22+er);return;}function%20searchWithinNode(node,%20re){var%20pos,%20skip,%20spannode,%20middlebit,%20endbit,%20middleclone;skip=0;if(%20node.nodeType==3%20){pos=node.data.search(re);if(pos%3E=0){spannode=document.createElement(%22SPAN%22);spannode.style.backgroundColor=%22yellow%22;middlebit=node.splitText(pos);endbit=middlebit.splitText(RegExp.$1.length);middleclone=middlebit.cloneNode(true);spannode.appendChild(middleclone);middlebit.parentNode.replaceChild(spannode,middlebit);++count;skip=1;}}else%20if(%20node.nodeType==1%20&&%20node.childNodes%20&&%20node.tagName.toUpperCase()!=%22SCRIPT%22%20&&%20node.tagName.toUpperCase!=%22STYLE%22){for%20(var%20child=0;%20child%20%3C%20node.childNodes.length;%20++child){child=child+searchWithinNode(node.childNodes[child],%20re);}}return%20skip;}window.status=%22Searching%20for%20%22+regexp+%22...%22;searchWithinNode(document.body,%20regexp);window.status=%22Found%20%22+count+%22%20match%22+(count==1?%22%22:%22es%22)+%22%20for%20%22+regexp+%22.%22;})();