Regex and Javascript to remove numbers from string

Question

I have a string:

 str =    'View:{
            Name:"View1",
            Image:{
                BackgroundImage:"Image.gif",
                Position: [0, 0],
                Width: 320,
                Height: 480
            },

            Button:{
                BackgroundImage:"Button.gif",
                Transition:"View2",
                Position: [49, 80],
                Width: 216,
                Height: 71
            },

            Button:{
                BackgroundImage:"Button2.gif",
                Position: [65, 217],
                Width: 188,
                Height: 134
            },'

That I use this regex to add '_#' to elements that have ':{' at the end of them

var i = 0;
str = str.replace(/([^:]+):{/g, function(m, p1) { return p1 + "_" + (++i).toString() + ":{"; });

The ouput is

str =    'View_1:{
        Name:"View1",
        Image_2:{
            BackgroundImage:"Image.gif",
            Position: [0, 0],
            Width: 320,
            Height: 480
        },

        Button_3:{
            BackgroundImage:"Button.gif",
            Transition:"View2",
            Position: [49, 80],
            Width: 216,
            Height: 71
        },

        Button_4:{
            BackgroundImage:"Button2.gif",
            Position: [65, 217],
            Width: 188,
            Height: 134
        },'

Then I do a bunch of stuff with it and now I need to strip out the '#' from it. How would I go about removing those '#'

Not cessary but another problem I am having is the the first regex is incrementing starting from 0 and giving each element the next incremented number. I am trying to make it so that each element increments on its type. Like this:

str =    'View_1:{
        Name:"View1",
        Image_1:{
            BackgroundImage:"Image.gif",
            Position: [0, 0],
            Width: 320,
            Height: 480
        },

        Button_1:{
            BackgroundImage:"Button.gif",
            Transition:"View2",
            Position: [49, 80],
            Width: 216,
            Height: 71
        },

        Button_2:{
            BackgroundImage:"Button2.gif",
            Position: [65, 217],
            Width: 188,
            Height: 134
        },'

Any input on what im doing wrong here too?

Why don't you just fix what ever is building this invalid JSON object :) Seems like it should be build an array of objects. — epascarello
– epascarello, Commented Dec 28, 2012 at 19:04
Why do you need the numbers to increment independently? Are you worried about running out of numbers? :) — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Dec 28, 2012 at 19:22
believe it or not, this string was never intended to be a json object. Its an instruction script so I cant modify the incoming string. I have to parse it into an object. Make some changes to the string based on a web form and pass it back - minus the numbers. Make sense? — Rob
– Rob, Commented Dec 28, 2012 at 19:28
@Barmar :). I could be getting strings with 30 or 40 buttons in it and lots of images and layers. Need some kind of organization. — Rob
– Rob, Commented Dec 28, 2012 at 19:30

Niet the Dark Absol · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-28 19:03:40Z

1

For the first question, just replace _\d+:{ with :{

For the second, you need a separate counter for each type. Try this:

var i = {};
str = str.replace(/([^:]+):{/g, function(m, p1) {
    i[p1] = (i[p1] || 0)+1;
    return p1 + "_" + i[p1].toString() + ":{";
});

answered Dec 28, 2012 at 19:03

Niet the Dark Absol

326k86 gold badges480 silver badges604 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

6 Comments

Rob Over a year ago

I am testing out the 1st one now. But the second one just assign '_1' to all of them. Doesnt seem to increment. here is a demo jsfiddle.net/XLMCc the top shows the output as an object and below that shows the string

Rob Over a year ago

Sorry if I am misunderstanding but "just replace '_\d+:{' with ':{'. I do not see '_\d+:{' in my code I provided.

Niet the Dark Absol Over a year ago

Okay, after some debugging, I've found that you need to use /(\S+):{/g in that regex I gave you, otherwise it's matching stuff from the previous line too which is why it gives you 1 on everything. As for the _\d+:{, this will match the numbers that were added, and remove them if you replace with an empty string.

Rob Over a year ago

Thanks Kolink. The first one works great. The question I am having is with the second one. Can you provide the whole .replace() for me. I have tried switching it out and its not working.

Niet the Dark Absol Over a year ago

.replace(/_\d+:{/g,':{')

|

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Regex and Javascript to remove numbers from string

1 Answer 1

6 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

6 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related