Javascript - replace HTML code

Question

I'm trying to replace some codes in JavaScript. Somehow, this doesn't work.

var name = "check & ' &#92;&quot;";
alert(name);
alert(name.replace(/[&quot;]/g, "\""));
alert(name.replace(/[&#92;]/g, "\"));

What am I doing wrong?

Those "codes" are called _entities_, by the way. – user2428118 Oct 06 '12 at 14:50 — user2428118, Oct 06 '12 at 14:50

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

3

Don't use regex, just parse it:

 var d = document.createElement('div');
 d.innerHTML = "check & ' &#92;&quot;";
 console.log(d.innerText);//all done

Create an element (in memory, it won't show), and use the innerText property, this'll return the text equivalent (ie converts all html-entities to their respective chars).

read this

As a side-note: the reason why /["]/g would never work is because you're creating a character class/group: it'll match any 1 character of the group, not the entire string:

d.innerHTML.replace(/[&quot;]/g,'@');//"check @amp@ ' \""
d.innerHTML.replace(/(&quot;)/g,'@');//"check &amp; ' \""

edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

Community

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answered Aug 27 '12 at 15:28

Elias Van Ootegem

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@DavidThomas: NP, you were right. I had no reason to be blunt – Elias Van Ootegem Aug 27 '12 at 15:40
Meh, we've all been there... =) – David Thomas Aug 27 '12 at 15:41

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '12 at 15:28

In regex, [] means "any of the following characters". So, /[\]/g will match a &, a #, a 9, a 2 or a ;.

Try it without the [].

var name = "check & ' &#92;&quot;";
alert(name);
alert(name.replace(/&quot;/g, "\""));
alert(name.replace(/&#92;/g, "\""));

Javascript - replace HTML code

2 Answers2