Regex matching emoticons

Question

We are working on a project where we want users to be able to use both emoji syntax (like :smile:, :heart:, :confused:,:stuck_ou

Answer 1

Make a positive look-ahead for a space

([\:\<]-?[)(|\\/pP3D])(?:(?=\s))
 |       |      |         |
 |       |      |         |
 |       |      |         |-> match last separating space
 |       |      |-> match last part of the emot
 |       |-> it may have a `-` or not 
 |-> first part of the emoticon

Since you're using javascript, and you don't have access to look arounds:

/([\:\<]-?[)|\\/pP3D])(\s|$)/g.exec('hi :) ;D');

And then just splice() the resulting array out of its last entry (that's most probably a space)