How to replace a new line character in Javascript?

Question

Hi =) I have some code that I am struggling with. I have a function to replace specific html characters values like a tab or new line, however it doesn't seem to work very well.

var replaceHTMLCharacters = function(text){
  text = text.split("");
    for(var i = 0; i < text.length; i++){
        if(text[i].charCodeAt(0) == 10){
            text[i] = "\n";
        }
    }
  text = text.join("");
  console.log(text);
  return text;
}

This is an example of me trying to remove a new line character and replace it with "\n" so that I can store it in a JSON format. It reaches the point where it says text[i] = "\n" but then doesn't actually set this character to a "\n". Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? Thank you.

"\n" *is* a newline character. You're replacing them with what's already there, leaving the String unchanged. If you want the actual characters \ and n, you need to mask the backslash "\\n" and insert that. — , Nov 11 '16 at 00:25
@ChrisG Ah yes that did the trick for me thank you. Post as answer I will mark as solution — Pixelknight1398, Nov 11 '16 at 00:35
Why do you need to do this to store in JSON? `JSON.stringify()` will do this for you. — Barmar, Nov 11 '16 at 01:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 11 '16 at 00:56

2

"\n" is a newline character. You're replacing them with what's already there, leaving the String unchanged. If you want the actual characters \ and n, you need to mask the backslash \\n and insert that.

answered Nov 11 '16 at 00:56

Leo Napoleon · Answer 2 · 2016-11-11T00:41:34.850

0

I think you would be better off using a bit of regex here. Try this code (I also purposely renamed your function to have a bit more describing name):

function breakOnTab (string) {
    return string.replace(/\t/g, '\r\n')
}

This regex finds all tab characters \t and replaces them with a string consisting of escaped carriage return and new line.

edited Nov 11 '16 at 00:41

answered Nov 11 '16 at 00:36

Leo Napoleon

969
6
11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 11 '16 at 00:40

0

It seems you are replacing "\n" with "\n". To replace '\n' you will need to escape it by adding an additional '\' or '\n'

answered Nov 11 '16 at 00:40

Nick Satija

181
7

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 15 '20 at 12:58

First of all: HTML chars do not exist...

Second: I don't understand why you did text = text.split("");, you will iterate over an array instead of an String, spending time and memory...

Third: '\n' charCode is 10...

If you want to rewrite text formatted on HTML to plain text, you could do something like:

var replaceHTMLCharacters = function(text){
  text = text.replace(/<br\s*\/?>/g,'\n');
  console.log(text);
  return text;
}

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

0

You could use something like this with \n and \t ..

You could check also checkout Difference between \n and \r?

var replaceHTMLCharacters = function(text) {
  var reg = new RegExp(/(\r\n?|\n|\t)/g);
  var ntext = text.replace(reg, "-");
  console.log(ntext);
  return text;
}

replaceHTMLCharacters(`newLine
Text1`)
replaceHTMLCharacters("Tab text2");

edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

Community

1
1

answered Nov 11 '16 at 00:47

Sreekanth

3,110
10
22

How to replace a new line character in Javascript?

5 Answers5