Javascript: replace inside a replace

Question

My input is many lines of text that looks like this:

a.b.c.d.e (f:g)

I need to turn this into

a.b.c.d.e (a/b/c/d/e/f?g)

Note that the dotted part (a.b.c.d.e) can have varying numbers of elements, so sometimes it'll be q.r.s.t, sometimes u.v.w.x.y.z and so on. I have a replace() that will give me (a.b.c.d.e.f?g), but what I need is then to turn all those .s into /s in the result.

Is there a way to do a replace inside a replace? Or should I just call replace() on the string twice?

Sorry if this question is poorly worded, I'm not awfully well versed at regular expressions in javascript.

epascarello · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-24 01:16:30Z

4

A very crazy way of doing it:

var str = "a.b.c.d.e (f:g)";
var re = /([^\s]+)\s\(([^:]+):([^\)]+)\)/;
var newStr = str.replace(re, function(a,b,c,d){ return b + " (" + b.replace(/\./g,"/") + "/" + c + "?" + d + ")"; });

jsfiddle

answered May 24, 2012 at 1:16

epascarello

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1 Comment

Mala Over a year ago

replace() can take a function as its second parameter? that is so cool it hurts

Andrew Cooper · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-24 01:15:22Z

3

You need to chain the calls to replace() one after the other.

var result = source.replace("foo", "bar").replace("oof", "rab");

answered May 24, 2012 at 1:15

Andrew Cooper

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Comments

Tina CG Hoehr · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-24 01:21:40Z

1

A saner way :) http://jsfiddle.net/smfPU/

input = "a.b.c.d.e.w.x.y.z (f:g:h)";
output = input.replace(/:/g, "?");
outputparts = output.split("(");
left = outputparts[0];
middle = left.replace(/\./g, "/").trim();
right = outputparts[1];
output = left + "(" + middle + "/" + right;
document.write(output);

answered May 24, 2012 at 1:21

Tina CG Hoehr

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