Javascript Regex Replace Exact character

Question

I have this code

htmlString= htmlString.replace( new RegExp( "WW(.+?)WW", "gim" ),
    "<span style='color:red;border-bottom:1px dashed red;'>$1</span>" );

This seems to work however it is replacing the www's in url's. What I have is WW somestring WW I clip out the text between WW and replace it. However, I can't seem to only get the exact char sequence. I tried {WW} ^WW [^WW] with the end [$WW] and variations. Also tried \bWW string \bWW and no match.

Any help would be great, thanks.

Sample string = PHysell WW 3 miles Northwest Christiansburg, va WW Pea size hail — Zippy
– Zippy, Commented May 24, 2011 at 15:53
WW ---- WW is the designator that there is some location in between. Could be named location, state, zipcode, intersection, etc. — Zippy
– Zippy, Commented May 24, 2011 at 15:54

Tim Pietzcker · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-24 16:09:16Z

4

Assuming that there is something else than alphanumeric characters after the starting WW and before the ending WW (whitespace, for example), then you could do this:

htmlString = htmlString.replace(/\bWW\b\s*(.+?)\s*\bWW\b/g, 
    "<span style='color:red;border-bottom:1px dashed red;'>$1</span>" );

Using a regex object instead of a string literal makes it easier to read. If you had used \b in a string literal it would have meant "backspace" - you need to escape backslashes in a string literal, so the above regex would become "\\bWW\\b\\s*(.+?)\\s*\\bWW\\b".

edited May 24, 2011 at 16:09

answered May 24, 2011 at 16:02

Tim Pietzcker

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1 Comment

Zippy Over a year ago

BAM thanks, that does look better. I tried the \b but didn't add the / to the beginning or something. I will get the hang of this regex someday. Thanks again.

ic3b3rg · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-24 15:53:52Z

0

If the text you're looking to replace is always uppercase and the www you don't want to replace is always lowercase, then you can just replace the "gim" with "gm": the i indicates ignore case. The m in "gim" has no meaning in a RegExp so you can reduce to "g".

answered May 24, 2011 at 15:53

ic3b3rg

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2 Comments

Zippy Over a year ago

Well I cant assume it will always be upper or lowercase. Should be upper but users make errors. However that would be a quick fix in the mean time, thanks.

ic3b3rg Over a year ago

What about the spaces on either side of 'WW'... are those required? If so, your search can be " WW (.+?) WW " and you can ignore case.

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