I've been trying to set up my own Scripture verse regex that can accomodate a wide ranges of Scripture types. I've copied some of this regex from another stackoverflow question. The issue that I'm having is that it won't find the verse after a comma, after a verse range as in Hos 10:1-3, 8. It will find Hos 10:1-3, but not 8. The issue boils down to a \S that I have in there, but I need that in there so that the regex will find scripture passages that are next to each other, where a second passage starts with a number, like 1 Peter. The regex is:
((?:(I+|1st|2nd|3rd|First|Second|Third|[123])\s)?(Gen|Ge|Gn|Exo|Ex|Exod|Lev|Le|Lv|Num|Nu|Nm|Nb|Deut|Dt|Josh|Jos|Jsh|Judg|Jdg|Jg|Jdgs|Rth|Ru|Sam|Samuel|Kings|Kgs|Kin|Chron|Chronicles|Ezra|Ezr|Ez|Neh|Ne|Esth|Es|Job|Job|Jb|Pslm|Ps|Psalms|Psa|Psm|Pss|Prov|Pr|Prv|Eccles|Ec|Song|So|Canticles|Song of Songs|SOS|Isa|Is|Jer|Je|Jr|Lam|La|Ezek|Eze|Ezk|Dan|Da|Dn|Hos|Ho|Joel|Joe|Jl|Amos|Am|Obad|Ob|Jnh|Jon|Micah|Mic|Nah|Na|Hab|Zeph|Zep|Zp|Haggai|Hag|Hg|Zech|Zec|Zc|Mal|Mal|Ml|Matt|Mt|Mrk|Mk|Mr|Luk|Lk|John|Jn|Jhn|Acts|Ac|Rom|Ro|Rm|Co|Cor|Corinthians|Gal|Ga|Ephes|Eph|Phil|Php|Col|Col|Th|Thes|Thess|Thessalonians|Ti|Tim|Timothy|Titus|Tit|Philem|Phm|Hebrews|Heb|He|James|Jas|Jm|Pe|Pet|Pt|Peter|Jn|Jo|Joh|Jhn|John|Jude|Jd|Jud|Jud|Rev|The Revelation|Genesis|Exodus|Leviticus|Numbers|Deuteronomy|Joshua|Judges|Ruth|Samuel|Kings|Chronicles|Ezra|Nehemiah|Esther|Job|Psalms|Psalm|Proverbs|Ecclesiastes|Song of Solomon|Isaiah|Jeremiah|Lamentations|Ezekiel|Daniel|Hosea|Joel|Amos|Obadiah|Jonah|Micah|Nahum|Habakkuk|Zephaniah|Haggai|Zechariah|Malachi|Matthew|Mark|Luke|John|Acts|Romans|Corinthians|Galatians|Ephesians|Philippians|Colossians|Thessalonians|Timothy|Titus|Philemon|Hebrews|James|Peter|John|Revelation|Re|Ap))(.?\s?\d+((?:[:.]\d+)?(\s?[-–—]\s?)?(?:\d+)(?:(,\s?\d+)*)?\S([:.]?\d+)?(,?\s?\d+[–—-]\s?\d+,?\d+)?)?(?:[:.]\d+)?(?:[abcde])?(?:,\d+)*(?:[-–—]\d?\s?)?)(?:[:.]\d+[–-—]\s?\d+,?\s?\d+)?
I have a link to the tester with a lot of the passages types that I'm wanting to find: link to regex tester with examples Anyone have any suggestions on how to edit this in order to find Hos 10:1-3, 8? I'm pretty new to regex, so I suspect this should be an easy fix for a more seasoned regexer. I've tried quite a bit of different combinations with no success, as each new combination I've tried breaks finding the current passages that I've already been able to test.
There are a couple of problems with the regex approach.
One is that the book names can be of the form 2 Peter and this can get muddled with the introduced form like: Gen 1, 2 Peter.
For most of the books which can have numerals at the start this can be got round by adding these versions to the list of book names and looking for them explicitly before doing anything else.
However, this cannot solve the problem of John which can have a preceding numeral or not. No amount of clever parsing can get round this problem and the only person who can solve it is the one who authored the text and knows what they mean.
There is also the fact that a . can be used at the end of a book name, though this can also be accommodated by adding such strings to the list of book names before searching for them.
A major problem (IMO) is the difficulty of comprehending regexs which deal with these special cases. For maintainability I'd suggest coding in a less sophisticated way.
So, I gave up on regex because of the problems and instead here is a JS version - very unpolished and a bit hacky, but it does the job of dealing with the 2 Peter etc problems.
Authors will have to check themselves for the John problem but it's unlikely to occur often as the numbers after the preceding , would need to be low. Such a human check will be required however sophisticated and comprehensive the code/regex.
<style>
span {
background: pink;
}
</style>
<div></div>
<script>
const books = ['Gen', 'Ge', 'Gn', 'Exo', 'Ex', 'Exod', 'Lev', 'Le', 'Lv', 'Num', 'Nu', 'Nm', 'Nb', 'Deut', 'Dt', 'Josh', 'Jos', 'Jsh', 'Judg', 'Jdg', 'Jg', 'Jdgs', 'Rth', 'Ru', 'Sam', 'Samuel', 'Kings', 'Kgs', 'Kin', 'Chron', 'Chronicles', 'Ezra', 'Ezr', 'Ez', 'Neh', 'Ne', 'Esth', 'Es', 'Job', 'Job', 'Jb', 'Pslm', 'Ps', 'Psalms', 'Psa', 'Psm', 'Pss', 'Prov', 'Pr', 'Prv', 'Eccles', 'Ec', 'Song', 'So', 'Canticles', 'Song of Songs', 'SOS', 'Isa', 'Is', 'Jer', 'Je', 'Jr', 'Lam', 'La', 'Ezek', 'Eze', 'Ezk', 'Dan', 'Da', 'Dn', 'Hos', 'Ho', 'Joel', 'Joe', 'Jl', 'Amos', 'Am', 'Obad', 'Ob', 'Jnh', 'Jon', 'Micah', 'Mic', 'Nah', 'Na', 'Hab', 'Zeph', 'Zep', 'Zp', 'Haggai', 'Hag', 'Hg', 'Zech', 'Zec', 'Zc', 'Mal', 'Mal', 'Ml', 'Matt', 'Mt', 'Mrk', 'Mk', 'Mr', 'Luk', 'Lk', 'John', 'Jn', 'Jhn', 'Acts', 'Ac', 'Rom', 'Ro', 'Rm', 'Co', 'Cor', 'Corinthians', 'Gal', 'Ga', 'Ephes', 'Eph', 'Phil', 'Php', 'Col', 'Col', 'Th', 'Thes', 'Thess', 'Thessalonians', 'Ti', 'Tim', 'Timothy', 'Titus', 'Tit', 'Philem', 'Phm', 'Hebrews', 'Heb', 'He', 'James', 'Jas', 'Jm', 'Pe', 'Pet', 'Pt', 'Peter', 'Jn', 'Jo', 'Joh', 'Jhn', 'John', 'Jude', 'Jd', 'Jud', 'Jud', 'Rev', 'The Revelation', 'Genesis', 'Exodus', 'Leviticus', 'Numbers', 'Deuteronomy', 'Joshua', 'Judges', 'Ruth', 'Samuel', 'Kings', 'Chronicles', 'Ezra', 'Nehemiah', 'Esther', 'Job', 'Psalms', 'Psalm', 'Proverbs', 'Ecclesiastes', 'Song of Solomon', 'Isaiah', 'Jeremiah', 'Lamentations', 'Ezekiel', 'Daniel', 'Hosea', 'Joel', 'Amos', 'Obadiah', 'Jonah', 'Micah', 'Nahum', 'Habakkuk', 'Zephaniah', 'Haggai', 'Zechariah', 'Malachi', 'Matthew', 'Mark', 'Luke', 'John', 'Acts', 'Romans', 'Corinthians', 'Galatians', 'Ephesians', 'Philippians', 'Colossians', 'Thessalonians', 'Timothy', 'Titus', 'Philemon', 'Hebrews', 'James', 'Peter', 'John', 'Revelation', 'Re', 'Ap', 'Jd.', 'Heb.'];
const preStrings = ['III', 'II', 'I', '1st', '2nd', '3rd', 'First', 'Second', 'Third', '1', '2', '3'];
const preStringed = ['Sam', 'Samuel', 'Kings', 'Kgs', 'Kin', 'Chron', 'Chronicles', 'Corinthians', 'Co', 'Cor', 'Thessalonians', 'Th', 'Thes', 'Thess', 'Timothy', 'Ti', 'Tim', 'Peter', 'Pe', 'Pet', 'Pt', 'John', 'Jn', 'Jhn'];
let text = `Joel 10:13 The passages Luke 2:32 and Lk 1:23 that we are looking at tonight 1 Cor 12:34 2 Cor 3:4 are found Jude 6, in Jude 5, Genesis 2:1 - 3:19, 1 John 3:16-17, 1 Peter 1:1, and Romans 10:13, 15, 17. Please turn in your Bibles. Ps 109:4,5,6,8. Isaiah 61.2-3 Mt 5.4
Ge 27.27-29,89-40 Heb 11.20 Heb. 12.17 Jonah 3
Jd. 5
Jd 6
1 Cor 12:34 2 Cor 3:4. He 4.12 Re 1.16
Leviticus 16:6 He 5.3 He 7.27
Hos 10:1-3, 8 and 1 John 2:23`;
//add the prestringed versions e.g. 1 Peter
for (let b = 0; b < preStringed.length; b++) {
for (let pre = 0; pre < preStrings.length; pre++) {
books.push(preStrings[pre] + ' ' + preStringed[b]);
}
}
// add the book name with . at the end as this seems to be added sometimes, at least to the shortened forms
const length = books.length;
for (let b = 0; b < length; b++) {
books.push(books[b] + '.');
}
// sort descending - longer items first
books.sort((a, b) => b.length - a.length);
let booksAt = [];
// go thro' each book finding where it matches in text
for (let b = 0; b < books.length; b++) {
const book = books[b];
let chNoInText = 0;
while (chNoInText < text.length) {
let j = text.indexOf(book, chNoInText);
if (j < 0) break;
if (((j + book.length) < text.length) && !(text.charAt(j + book.length).match(/^[a-z]+$/))) {
booksAt.push([book, j]);
let replacement = book;
for (let k = 0; k < book.length; k++) {
replacement = replacement.replace(book.charAt(k), 'X');
}
text = text.replace(book, replacement); // to prevent a shorter version matching
}
chNoInText = j + book.length + 1;
}
}
// into ascending order of start position
booksAt.sort(function(a, b) {
return a[1] - b[1];
});
newText = '';
let chNoInText = 0;
for (let b = 0; b < booksAt.length; b++) {
while (chNoInText < booksAt[b][1]) { //copy across characters to start of book
newText += text.charAt(chNoInText);
chNoInText++;
}
newText += '<span>' + booksAt[b][0] + '</span><span>';
chNoInText += booksAt[b][0].length; //skip the 'fill-in characters
for (let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
chNoInText++;
const nextCh = text.charAt(chNoInText);
//test whether are at the end of the chapter(s) and verse(s)
if (nextCh.match(/^[a-z]+$/)) break;
if (nextCh.match(/^[A-Z]+$/)) break;
newText += text.charAt(chNoInText - 1);
};
newText += '</span> ';
}
document.querySelector('div').innerHTML = newText;
</script>