|                                                                                                 |  | # balanced-match
Match balanced string pairs, like `{` and `}` or `<b>` and `</b>`. Supports regular expressions as well!
[](http://travis-ci.org/juliangruber/balanced-match)[](https://www.npmjs.org/package/balanced-match)
[](https://ci.testling.com/juliangruber/balanced-match)
## Example
Get the first matching pair of braces:
```jsvar balanced = require('balanced-match');
console.log(balanced('{', '}', 'pre{in{nested}}post'));console.log(balanced('{', '}', 'pre{first}between{second}post'));console.log(balanced(/\s+\{\s+/, /\s+\}\s+/, 'pre  {   in{nest}   }  post'));```
The matches are:
```bash$ node example.js{ start: 3, end: 14, pre: 'pre', body: 'in{nested}', post: 'post' }{ start: 3,  end: 9,  pre: 'pre',  body: 'first',  post: 'between{second}post' }{ start: 3, end: 17, pre: 'pre', body: 'in{nest}', post: 'post' }```
## API
### var m = balanced(a, b, str)
For the first non-nested matching pair of `a` and `b` in `str`, return anobject with those keys:
* **start** the index of the first match of `a`* **end** the index of the matching `b`* **pre** the preamble, `a` and `b` not included* **body** the match, `a` and `b` not included* **post** the postscript, `a` and `b` not included
If there's no match, `undefined` will be returned.
If the `str` contains more `a` than `b` / there are unmatched pairs, the first match that was closed will be used. For example, `{{a}` will match `['{', 'a', '']` and `{a}}` will match `['', 'a', '}']`.
### var r = balanced.range(a, b, str)
For the first non-nested matching pair of `a` and `b` in `str`, return anarray with indexes: `[ <a index>, <b index> ]`.
If there's no match, `undefined` will be returned.
If the `str` contains more `a` than `b` / there are unmatched pairs, the first match that was closed will be used. For example, `{{a}` will match `[ 1, 3 ]` and `{a}}` will match `[0, 2]`.
## Installation
With [npm](https://npmjs.org) do:
```bashnpm install balanced-match```
## Security contact information
To report a security vulnerability, please use the[Tidelift security contact](https://tidelift.com/security).Tidelift will coordinate the fix and disclosure.
## License
(MIT)
Copyright (c) 2013 Julian Gruber <julian@juliangruber.com>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy ofthis software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal inthe Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights touse, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copiesof the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to doso, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in allcopies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THEAUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHERLIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THESOFTWARE.
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