Invalid regular expression Range out of Order Error in JS

Invalid regular expression Range out of Order Error in JS #

The "SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: Range out of order in character class" error occurs when we forget to escape a hyphen in a character class in a regular expression.

To solve the error, specify the hyphen as the first or last character in the regex or escape it.

Here's an example of how the error occurs.

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const str = 'hello 123';

// ⛔️ SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: /[a--zA-Z0-9 ]/: Range out of order in character class
console.log(/[a--zA-Z0-9 ]/g.test(str));

Notice that we have 2 hyphens next to one another in the character class.

To solve the error, you can either add the hyphen as the first or last character in the character class or escape it.

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const str = 'hello 123';

console.log(/[-a-zA-Z0-9 ]/g.test(str)); // 👉️ true

We added the hyphen as the first character in the character class where it can't be mistaken as a separator of a range.

The "Explanation" column to the right shows where the errors in the regex occur.

Conclusion #

The "SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: Range out of order in character class" error occurs when we forget to escape a hyphen in a character class in a regular expression.

To solve the error, specify the hyphen as the first or last character in the regex or escape it.