Use Match and then Replace in JavaScript Regex

Question

Consider:

    <% 
        content = ""+Request.Form("completehtml")+"";
        contentmatch = content;
        contentmatch = contentmatch.match(/(<div class="content">[\s\S]+?)(?=[##])/ig); 
    %>

If I get the above match and it gives me some HTML: is it possible to find text in the match and to replace it again?

    contentmatch = contentmatch.replace(/test/ig, 'working');

The problem I get with the replace is, that Internet Explorer says it is not supported. What is the reason?

    <% 
        content = ""+Request.Form("completehtml")+"";
        contentmatch = content;
        contentmatch = contentmatch.replace(/>\s+?</ig, '><'); 
        contentmatch = contentmatch.match(/(<div class="content">[\s\S]+?)(?=[##])/ig); 
    %>

OK it seems like I figured it out partly - If you do the replace before the match it seems to work, if you do it after the match is does not seem to work.

Is it possible to do a replace after the match?

Reg3x cann0t pärse HtM|_: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454 — Mark Byers, Jan 05 '10 at 19:46
"The problem I get with the replace is, that IE says it is not supported?" --> IS THAT WORKS WITH MOZILLA FIREFOX ??? — Michel Gokan Khan, Jan 05 '10 at 19:55
Mark Byers - Nice one :-) but it can parse simple html if you are sure the code validates if
is always going to be
you can parse it - I think the trick is not to parse complicated html that does not validate.... but I am using the regex on my own stuff which is not over complicated and always validates... — Gerald Ferreira, Jan 05 '10 at 20:08

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 05 '10 at 20:06

Your line:

contentmatch = contentmatch.match(/(<div class="content">[\s\S]+?)(?=[##])/ig);

is replacing the contentmatch variable with the result of the match method. That result is an Array. Arrays do happen to have a replace method (in FF), but it does something different than the String method, which is what you want.

Use Match and then Replace in JavaScript Regex

1 Answers1