remove specific character unless preceded by some specific string

Question

I looked a lot, but i couldn't find answer to my case. So I want to remove specific character unless it is preceded by some specific string. For example, if I have a paragraph like follows

var para = '<test@gmail.com>
  >Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,<test@gmail.com> consectetur
  >adipiscing elit. Integer nec >
  >odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla 
  >quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet.Duis sagittis ipsum. Praesent 
  >mauris. Fusce nec tellus sed augue semper porta. Mauris massa. 
  >Vestibulum lacinia arcu eget nulla. Class aptent taciti sociosqu. 
  <test@gmail.com> '

I wanna remove all '>' except the ones after the '.com'

output should be like

var para = '<test@gmail.com>
   Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,<test@gmail.com> consectetur
   adipiscing elit. Integer nec 
   odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla 
   quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet.Duis sagittis ipsum. Praesent 
   mauris. Fusce nec tellus sed augue semper porta. Mauris massa. 
   Vestibulum lacinia arcu eget nulla. Class aptent taciti sociosqu. 
  <test@gmail.com> '

I know if i do

para = para.replace(/\>/g,'');

This will replace all '>', but I need to add that condition to it.

`[^m]>` Should do the work – Rodrigo Ferreira Apr 18 '18 at 20:39 — Rodrigo Ferreira, Apr 18 '18 at 20:39

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 18 '18 at 20:41

3

[^m]> Should do the work.

See the demo in regex101

Explanation: [^m]> says that should match every > which is not preceded by a m character.

answered Apr 18 '18 at 20:41

Rodrigo Ferreira

1,091
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Edge case: What if the first character of the string is `>`? – CRice Apr 18 '18 at 20:49
I think you can do something like `([^m]>|^>)` , I just answered what he tried to accomplish. – Rodrigo Ferreira Apr 18 '18 at 21:00

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '18 at 20:47

3

To remove all '>' except the ones after the '.com', use negative lookbehind

para = para.replace(/(?<!\.com)>/g,'');

answered Apr 18 '18 at 20:47

Matt.G

3,586
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This one did not have any effect on the format it kept the same format thanks – Amer Bearat Apr 18 '18 at 20:53
Negative lookbehind is not supported in Javascript regex – Rodrigo Ferreira Apr 18 '18 at 20:53
You can [emulate the negative lookbehind](https://stackoverflow.com/a/11347100/8371135) to use this regex. – Rodrigo Ferreira Apr 18 '18 at 20:55
You're welcome, I'd recommend you to use [regex101](http://regex101.com/) to test your regex, It's a useful resource when you're trying to figure out what you can/cannot do in Javascript. – Rodrigo Ferreira Apr 18 '18 at 21:18

remove specific character unless preceded by some specific string

2 Answers2