What regex would detect if a string is part of a numbered list?
javascript, regex
Solution
It is a pretty simple regex. The following will find the start of the string, then a digit character repeated one or more time, then a period character, then the space character.
^\d+\.
REY
In JavaScript you can do the following to test the string:
var startsWithNumber = /^\d+\. /m.test('34. this should return true.');
jsFiddle
Problem
I am really struggling to find a regular expression that will reliably check to see if a string is part of a numbered list (such as those you would find in a common word-processor) Therefore, I would like it to return true if the beginning of the string is a number followed by a fullstop and a space. For single or even double digit numbers I can of course do this easily without the need for regular expressions, but since the number could be any size, it will not work. Example 1 ``` "1. This is a string" ``` Should return true because the string begins with: "1. " Example 2 ``` "3245. This is another string" ``` Should return true because the string begins with: "3245. " Example 3 ``` "This is a 24. string" ``` Should return false Because there is no pattern matched at the beginning of the string... however... Example 4 ``` "3. This is 24. string" ``` Should still return true I hope this is clear enough. Thanks in advance for any help.