Replacing surroundings of text in brackets when it occurs multiple times in a string

Question

I have a string containing LaTeX code, for example \emph{some words here} and I want to get Markdown syntax, for example,*some words here*. I tried:

s <- "some text in \\emph{italics} and some more ..."
pattern <- "\\\\emph\\{(.*)\\}"
gsub(pattern,"*\\1*", s)

> "some text in *italics* and some more ..."

However, I do not succeed at handling multiple occurences in one string.

s <- "some text in \\emph{italics} and some \\emph{more italics} and ..."
gsub(pattern,"*\\1*", s)

> "some text in *italics} and some \\emph{more italics* and ..."

I guess I need a non-greedy version which handles multiple occurrences, but I am not sure how to do it. Any ideas?

Why are you using `[ ]` character class for `{` ? Is `{` optional, since you used `?` with it. — , Mar 23 '16 at 21:19
no. sorry. I updated the question, to make it more succinct. — Mark Heckmann, Mar 23 '16 at 21:27

score 1 · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-23T21:20:49.153

1

Use lazy ? quantifier like this.

Regex: \\\\emph{(.*?)}

Regex101 Demo

edited Mar 23 '16 at 21:20

answered Mar 23 '16 at 21:15

okay, that was simple. Thanks :) – Mark Heckmann Mar 23 '16 at 21:23
@MarkHeckmann: Did that solved your problem ? Because I asked few doubts. Might improve the solution. – Mar 23 '16 at 21:24

Replacing surroundings of text in brackets when it occurs multiple times in a string

1 Answers1