How can I dynamically use string.replace?

Question

wordsArray = ['guy', 'like', 'sweet', 'potatoes']; //so on and so forth
string = "I am a **NOUN** and I **VERB** **ADJECTIVE** **NOUN**.";
DELIMITER = "**";

for (var i = 0; i < wordsArray.length; i++)
{
    string.replace(DELIMITER, wordsArray[i]);
}

Hi, this is a simplified version of my code. I'm creating a mad lib, and the length of wordsArray will always be equal to the number of fill in the blanks. The problem with my current code is that in the for loop, it will replace every **. The thing is, I want to replace the entire thing, like **NOUN**, not just **. But since whatever is in between ** ** won't always be the same, string.replace() won't exactly work. Can Anyone suggest me an edit that could replace all the part of speeches but still eventually return string as a, well, block of proper text?

You’d do this with a regex.

Sebastian Simon
– Sebastian Simon

2018-04-23 22:01:13 +00:00
Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:01 — Sebastian Simon
– Sebastian Simon, Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:01

Rahul Desai · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-23 22:10:38Z

2

You can do it using string.match by catching all those **<STRINGS>** first:

var wordsArray = ['guy', 'like', 'sweet', 'potatoes'];
var string = "I am a **NOUN** and I **VERB-** **ADJECTIVE** **NOUN**.";
var DELIMITER = "**";

var newString = string; // copy the string
var stringArray = string.match(/(\*\*[A-Za-z-]+\*\*)/g); // array of all **<STRINGS>**

for (var i = 0; i < wordsArray.length; i++) {
  newString = newString.replace(stringArray[i], wordsArray[i]);
}

console.log(newString);

edited Apr 23, 2018 at 22:10

answered Apr 23, 2018 at 22:06

Rahul Desai

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2 Comments

idontknowanygoodusernames Over a year ago

Oh that's really helpful! One more question though. Sometimes the part of speech may have -, like VERB-ENDING-IN-ING. What would I include in the match parameters to include that -?

Rahul Desai Over a year ago

@idontknowanygoodusernames do you mean something like **VERB-** ? In that case you will have to update the regex used in .match(). See my updated code above.

ibrahim tanyalcin · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-23 22:14:19Z

0

You can bind your array to the replacer and call replace on your string once, I think it is much simpler:

"I am a **NOUN** and I **VERB** **ADJECTIVE** **NOUN**.".replace(/(\*\*\w+\*\*)/gi,(function(){
    this._currentIndex = this._currentIndex || 0;
    return this[this._currentIndex++];
}).bind(['guy', 'like', 'sweet', 'potatoes']));

//"I am a guy and I like sweet potatoes."

edited Apr 23, 2018 at 22:14

answered Apr 23, 2018 at 22:08

ibrahim tanyalcin

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Comments

CarlRosell · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-23 22:18:37Z

0

Using reduce:

const string = "I am a **NOUN** and I **VERB** **ADJECTIVE** **NOUN**.";
const newString = ['guy', 'like', 'sweet', 'potatoes'].reduce(
  (theString, replacement) => theString.replace(/\*{2}\w+\*{2}/, replacement),
  string
)

edited Apr 23, 2018 at 22:18

answered Apr 23, 2018 at 22:09

CarlRosell

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