docs: difference between @stdlib/regexp/whitespace and \s?

[xuhdev]

Description

The doc of regex/whitespace says:

Returns a regular expression to match a white space character.

But \s does the same thing:

Matches a single white space character, including space, tab, form feed, line feed, and other Unicode spaces. Equivalent to [\f\n\r\t\v\u0020\u00a0\u1680\u2000-\u200a\u2028\u2029\u202f\u205f\u3000\ufeff]. For example, /\s\w*/ matches " bar" in "foo bar".

I think an explanation in the doc can be helpful. The git history of the library also doesn't shed any light on the reason. (Perhaps it was created at a time when JS was less powerful?)

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Checklist

• Read and understood the Code of Conduct.
• Searched for existing issues and pull requests.

[stdlib-bot]

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[kgryte]

@xuhdev Thanks for raising this issue. The two are not equivalent. E.g.,

In [1]: var s = '\u0085'
Out[1]: '\x85'

In [2]: /\s/.test(s)
Out[2]: false

In [3]: reWhitespace.REGEXP.test(s)
Out[3]: true

You are right that we should be more explicit in the documentation. We do implicitly document the difference in the source code:

stdlib/lib/node_modules/@stdlib/regexp/whitespace/lib/regexp.js

Line 54 in b8259d3

* - `\u0085`

Namely, ECMAScript does not consider the NEL unicode character to be whitespace, as demonstrated above; however, we consider the line terminator to be whitespace.

[yuvi-mittal]

Can i work on this issue ?

[kgryte]

@yuvi-mittal Feel free to submit a PR.

[AyushkhatiDev]

let me solve this issue

[yuvi-mittal]

I am already working on it .

[yours7himanshu]

@xuhdev Thanks for raising this issue. The two are not equivalent. E.g.,

In [1]: var s = '\u0085'
Out[1]: '\x85'

In [2]: /\s/.test(s)
Out[2]: false

In [3]: reWhitespace.REGEXP.test(s)
Out[3]: true
You are right that we should be more explicit in the documentation. We do implicitly document the difference in the source code:

stdlib/lib/node_modules/@stdlib/regexp/whitespace/lib/regexp.js

Line 54 in b8259d3

• • \u0085
    Namely, ECMAScript does not consider the NEL unicode character to be whitespace, as demonstrated above; however, we consider the line terminator to be whitespace.

@kgryte there is only one line difference between the two - @stdlib/regexp/whitespace considers the NEL Unicode character (\u0085) as whitespace, while ECMAScript's \s does not as simple as that i have to submit the PR request for this can u please tell which repo consist the source code of stlib.io/docs website?

[kgryte]

@yours7himanshu You should update the respective package README in this repository, as this repository contains all relevant source documentation. The website is simply the collection of package READMEs converted to HTML.