HTML tag inside javascript eval() function

Question

Why in the first case, html em tags are printed normally whereas in the second test, they disappear.

var text = "text";
eval("var text = text.replace(/(.*)(ex)(.*)/gi,'$1<em>$2</em>$3');");
console.log(text)   //text -> t<em>ex</em>t

but

var textx = text.replace("/(.*)(ex)(.*)/gi",'$1<em>$2</em>$3');
console.log(textx) //textx -> text

Thanks

Note that the console.log in your second code tries to print out a different variable, instead of textx. — poke
– poke, Commented Mar 12, 2011 at 15:48

sidyll · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-12 15:46:45Z

2

Because the first uses a regex to match text and the second uses a string.

There is no "/(.*)(ex)(.*)/gi" inside "text". There is /(.*)(ex)(.*)/gi.

answered Mar 12, 2011 at 15:46

sidyll

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Comments

Gergely Fehérvári · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-12 15:50:36Z

2

var text = "text";
var textx = text.replace(/(.*)(ex)(.*)/gi,'$1<em>$2</em>$3'); 
console.log(textx) //textx -> text

the problems was that you used a string in the regular expression. "/(.*)(ex)(.*)/gi" -> /(.*)(ex)(.*)/gi

and you had a spelling mistake in the console.log(testx) -> console.log(textx)

answered Mar 12, 2011 at 15:45

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