Regex advanced way to replace with many expressions

Question

I didn't find a solution inside regex's documentation for my current problem. I'm using javascript, html. My code is like this:

var text = 'This [close](animal) is a dog';

I want to get this using regex:

'This {animal} is a dog';

what I mean, i want to have 'close' replaced with { and }. I know, there's a solution like:

var res = text.replace('[close](','{').replace(')','}');

but in my case, I have many rules and I don't want to duplicate that line to do so. Sometimes I'm using other replacement like '[ xxxxx ]'. Any idea? Thank you!

I'm afraid the question isn't clear as it currently stands. Perhaps examples of those other "rules"? In particular, do they change what you do with animal? — T.J. Crowder
– T.J. Crowder, Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 8:47

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-30 09:07:16Z

3

You may use

var text = 'This [close](animal) is a dog';
console.log(text.replace(/\[[^\][]*]\(([^()]*)\)/g, '{$1}'));

See the regex demo.

Details

\[ - a [ char
[^\][]* - 0 or more chars other than [ and ]
]\( - a ]( substring
([^()]*) - Capturing group 1: any 0 or more chars other than ( and )
\) - a ) char.

The {$1} replacement is the contents of the capturing group enclosed with braces.

If you can only have two values - close and open - inside [...], and replace close with {...} and open with }...{, you may use

var text = '[open](animal)This [close](animal) is a dog';
console.log(text.replace(/\[(open|close)]\(([^()]*)\)/g, function($0, $1, $2) { 
  return $1==='close' ? '{'+$2+'}' : '}'+$2+'{';})
);

edited Oct 30, 2018 at 9:07

answered Oct 30, 2018 at 8:47

Wiktor Stribiżew

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2 Comments

pitiful Over a year ago

it works perfectly but if i change [close] with [open], it returns the same result, that's not good, e.g: i want to have }animal{ with [open]

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

@pitiful Please provide a sample string with expected output. Note you may replace [^\][]* with open or close, as you wish, but there can be better solutions if you explain the scenario exactly. See updated answer.

kraftwerk28 · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-30 08:59:56Z

0

Don't forget, that you can pass custom regex in Array.prototype.replace. In your case it would be text.replace(/[close](/g,'{'). Full solution of your question will look like:

var res = res.replace(/\[\w+\]\((.*)\)/, (a, b) => {
  console.log(a, b);
  return `{${b}}`;
});

The brackets around .* used to 'capture' animal inside variable b

answered Oct 30, 2018 at 8:59

kraftwerk28

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Comments

pitiful · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-30 09:11:11Z

0

Thank you Wiktor, I'v found a solution by what you said

var res0 = text.replace(/\[close]\(([^()]*)\)/g, '{$1}');
var res1 = text.replace(/\[open]\(([^()]*)\)/g, '}$1{');

Sorry if i did miskates, i'm not used to english expression so :-)

answered Oct 30, 2018 at 9:11

pitiful

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2 Comments

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

I have included a solution to do that in a single step. See my answer.

pitiful Over a year ago

well explained and solved my problem, Thank you very much

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