Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

JavaScript Regular Expressions in JavaScript Validating a Form Validating a Phone Number

Begana Choi
PLUS
Begana Choi
Courses Plus Student 13,126 Points
Posted by Begana Choi
Begana Choi
Courses Plus Student 13,126 Points

why do we use "\" for "(" and ")" but not for " - " ?

if I understood through this video, we use ( and ) to make a form of a telephone number. I guess ( and ) is normal syntax and that's why we need to use \ but why we don't use \ for - ? I'm a bit confused .

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points

Parentheses have special meaning in a pattern, they imply grouping. So the escape character "\" is used when you want a parenthesis to represent itself and not indicate a grouping.

But you don't need to escape hyphens ("-") because they don't have any special meaning to a pattern by themselves.