Regex matching for variables and numbers

Question

I'm trying to match variables and numbers in a javascript string (surrounding matches with span tags).

I'm having issues with variables in the form x1, c2 etc. My code originally looked like this

output = output.replace(/\d+/g,"<span class=\"number\">$&</span>");
output = output.replace(/\)/g,"<span class=\"function\">$&</span>");
output = output.replace(/[a-zA-Z]+\d*/g,returnTextValue); 
//returnTextValue is a function checking whether the string is a variable or plain text
//and highlighting accordingly

This caused variables in the form [a-zA-Z]+\d+ to not get matched correctly, because they had already been replaced with the number tag.

I've been trying a few things using lookaheads and stuff like [^A-Za-z]?\d+ for the numbers, but have not been able to find a good way of doing this.

I know I could match the tags, but would like a more elegant solution.

Am I missing an obvious logical solution, or does somebody have a regex operator I don't know for this situation?

Is the \d+ in the first rule supposed to match isolated numbers? Add boundaries \b\d+\b, then it won't match the a2 type. — Michael Berkowski
– Michael Berkowski, Commented Dec 6, 2012 at 2:55
that worked great, thank you. If you put it as an answer I will certainly accept. — Ben McCormick
– Ben McCormick, Commented Dec 6, 2012 at 3:02

2 revs · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:18:45Z

1

Is the \d+ in the first rule supposed to match isolated numbers? Add boundaries \b\d+\b, then it won't match the a2 type. – Michael Berkowski Dec 6 at 2:55

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