Javascript regexp replace newline

Question

I had

return value.replace("\n","<br>")
            .replace("\r","<br>")
            .replace("<br><br>","<br>");

which only replaced the first occurence of \n with

I found that, to replace all occurences, I should replace String with /String/g

So I did:

return value.replace("/\n/g","<br>")
            .replace("/\r/g","<br>")
            .replace("/<br><br>/g","<br>");

But it seems as if I am missing something, since nothing is replaced.

I don't know why you want to do this, but look into the CSS white-space property, especially the pre-wrap and pre-line values. — Mike Samuel
– Mike Samuel, Commented Mar 24, 2014 at 17:55

Sabuj Hassan · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-24 17:49:19Z

3

Remove the double quotes around the regex:

return value.replace(/\n/g,"<br>")
        .replace(/\r/g,"<br>")
        .replace(/<br><br>/g,"<br>");

answered Mar 24, 2014 at 17:49

Sabuj Hassan

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Amit Joki · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-24 17:49:29Z

1

You should remove quotes. And by the way, you can use this single and simple regex.

Use this:

return value.replace(/\n|\r|<br><br>/g,"<br>");

answered Mar 24, 2014 at 17:49

Amit Joki

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Jerry · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-24 18:00:48Z

1

When you use a literal string, don't use the quotes. This means your code becomes:

return value.replace(/\n/g,"<br>")
            .replace(/\r/g,"<br>")
            .replace(/<br><br>/g,"<br>");

But with regex, you can actually make it shorter by using character classes. For instance, if value does not have any <br> initially, you can use this:

return value.replace(/[\r\n]+/g, "<br>");

But if your initial code has <br> from the start, then you can use something more like this:

return value.replace(/(?:[\r\n]|<br>)+/g, "<br>");

Or perhaps maybe use definite quantifiers if you want to keep consecutive newlines:

return value.replace(/[\r\n]{2}/g, "<br>");

or

return value.replace(/(?:[\r\n]|<br>){2}/g, "<br>");

edited Mar 24, 2014 at 18:00

answered Mar 24, 2014 at 17:53

Jerry

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