strip a div and all child elements from a string with JavaScript replace RegEx

Question

I have a block of HTML stored in a variable called address_form, within that block of HTML I want to remove, or replace, a portion of it. The part I want to replace is a div with an ID of address_container.

There's clearly something wrong with my RegEx here that i'm using with the replace function as it is not working:

var tempStr = address_form.replace('/\<div id=\"#address_container\"\>.*<\/div\>/', '');

I simply want to replace a string, within a string.

You should at least remove the single quotes wrapping the regex, because it will be a string and not a regex :-) — devnull69
– devnull69, Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 14:53
If you want to modify HTML code with JavaScript, why not insert it into an element outside of the document and do the modifications via DOM methods? — Sirko
– Sirko, Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 14:53
@Sirko was thinking the same thing..and if u need the content as a string you could just get the content by saying outerHTML — Sajjan Sarkar
– Sajjan Sarkar, Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 14:55
Correctly matching a DIV element, (which itself may contain other DIV elements), using a single JavaScript regex is impossible. This is because the js regex engine does not support matching nested structures. — ridgerunner
– ridgerunner, Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 15:48

Brian Ball · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 14:55:13Z

2

Since you've tagged your question with jQuery, then I would suggest you use jQuery to do this task. Something like:

var tempStr = jQuery(address_from).remove('#address_container').html();

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 14:55

Brian Ball

12.7k3 gold badges43 silver badges56 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Reinstate Monica Cellio Over a year ago

+1 - that's how I'd do it, but I know more about the Twilight series than I do regular expressions. I've never seen any of the Twilight series.

Seimen Over a year ago

+1, that's the real solution. I would remove the .html() at the end and work with the jQuery object, though.

Steven · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 14:55:07Z

0

Don't do that, just get the contents of the div and replace the parent of that div with the contents.

So

var tempStr = $('#address_container').html(); // or text()
$('#parent_of_address_container').html(tempStr);

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 14:55

Steven

14.1k35 gold badges103 silver badges156 bronze badges

Comments

bluetoft · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 15:15:30Z

0

Your regex is wrong. Use this instead:

address_form.replace(/<div id=["-]#address_container["-]>.*<\/div>/,'');

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 15:15

bluetoft

5,4432 gold badges25 silver badges27 bronze badges

Comments

crmpicco · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-12 11:31:15Z

-1

From @RidgeRunner

Correctly matching a DIV element, (which itself may contain other DIV elements), using a single JavaScript regex is impossible. This is because the js regex engine does not support matching nested structures.

answered Feb 12, 2013 at 11:31

crmpicco

17.3k31 gold badges142 silver badges224 bronze badges

5 Comments

crmpicco Over a year ago

@Simon, it's not a solution - but it's an answer to the question I posed.

Seimen Over a year ago

You didn't really pose a question, just stated a problem. The solution to your problem would be the one Brian Ball posted.

Seimen Over a year ago

Just to clear that, I voted you down because if someone, being in the same position as you, is looking for a solution here, he would just find that there seems to be none while there actually is one.

crmpicco Over a year ago

@Simon Disagree. I tried Brian Ball's solution and it didn't quite work, plus I did ask RidgeRunner to add the answer.

Seimen Over a year ago

So you just go with "not possible" instead of trying to implement Brian Ball's code correctly? It probably would help if you could post what exact string your ´address_form´ is, to figure out why Brian's code didn't work at first try...

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

strip a div and all child elements from a string with JavaScript replace RegEx

4 Answers 4

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related