remove square brackets and it content from string in javascript

April 9, 2022

How to remove characters between two brackets and brackets. For example

Let it [Am]be, let it [C/G]be, let it [F]be, let it [C]be
[C]Whisper words of [G]wisdom, let it [F]be [C/E] [Dm] [C]

I want above string to

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

I use this regx but it is only take out brackets.

var reg = /[\[\]']+/g
var x = song.replace(reg,"")
console.log(x);

>Solution :

You need to escape the outer [] so you’re matching those literally, and allow anything except a ] inside. So:

var reg = /\[[^\]]*\]/g;

Here’s a breakdown (also on regex101):

\[ matches [ literally
[^\]] matches any character that isn’t a ]
* says "zero or more" of those (so it replaces []; if you don’t want that, change this to + for "one or more")
\] matches ] literally (I probably don’t need to escape it there, but I tend to anyway)

Live Example:

const song = `Let it [Am]be, let it [C/G]be, let it [F]be, let it [C]be
[C]Whisper words of [G]wisdom, let it [F]be [C/E] [Dm] [C]`;

var reg = /\[[^\]]*\]/g;
var x = song.replace(reg,"");
console.log(x);

Side note: In modern JavaScript, we don’t use var. Use let or const instead.