Replacing text in regex

Question

I need to replace a text using javascript and regex. Such that the words borex, edge and rss feeds get replaced with borex, edge and rss feeds. The text appears like this.

<body>
<img src="http://some.web.site/image.jpg" title="borex" />
These words are highlighted: borex, edge, rss feeds while these words are not: bewedge, borexlumina, rss feedssss
</body>

Get replaced with:

<body>
<img src="http://some.web.site/image.jpg" title="borex" />
These words are highlighted: <b>borex</b>, <b>edge</b>, <b>rss feeds</b> while these words are not: bewedge, borexlumina, rss feedssss
</body>

I tried:

var str = document.getElementByTagName("body")
 str.replace(/borex/g,'<b>borex</b>').replace(/edge/g,'<b>edge</b>').replace(/rss feeds/,'<b>rss feeds</b>')

This gets all of them. How do i get only the word that is not part of another word? Any other suggestions are welcome.. Need some help...

Your `str` variable does not actually contain the string of text... — Joseph Silber, Sep 02 '12 at 17:15

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

5

Use \b to indicate a word boundry:

str.replace(/\b(borex|edge|rss feeds)\b/g, '<b>$1</b>');

Here's the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/ELaWZ/

edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

Community

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answered Sep 02 '12 at 17:14

Joseph Silber

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just a qn: should it be $1 or \1 in the answer you gave? – lakshmen Sep 04 '12 at 03:57
@lakesh - Why would you want that to be `\1`? – Joseph Silber Sep 04 '12 at 16:16

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 02 '12 at 17:14

3

Use regex word boundaries:

str.replace(/\bborex\b/g,'<b>borex</b>').replace(/\bedge\b/g,'<b>edge</b>').replace(/\brss feeds\b/,'<b>rss feeds</b>')

answered Sep 02 '12 at 17:14

Alex Kalicki

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Replacing text in regex

2 Answers2