Replace a multiple times a substring in javascript

Question

I need to replace everything between : and , with a | multiple times.
I have a server list like server1:127.0.0.1,server2:127.0.0.2,server3:127.0.0.3.

Basically, I need to remove all the IPs and replace them with some |.

So far I was able to do this:

resultList = serverList.replace(/:.*,/g, '|')

The problem is that the result list is server1|server3:127.0.0.3.

How can I replace every occurrence?

greedy matching ruins your regex. Use `[^,]*` instead of `.*` — ASDFGerte, Jun 11 '18 at 21:38
Possible duplicate of [how to replace all occurrence of string between two symbols?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25606731/how-to-replace-all-occurrence-of-string-between-two-symbols) — Heretic Monkey, Jun 11 '18 at 21:52

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 11 '18 at 22:42

5

/:.*,/ is greedily matching :127.0.0.1,server2:127.0.0.2. Remember that quantifiers like * will match as much as they can while still allowing the rest of the pattern to match.

Consider specifying [^,] instead of .. This will exclude commas from matching and therefore limit the match to just the region you want to remove.

resultList = serverList.replace(/:[^,]*,/g, '|')

edited Jun 11 '18 at 22:42

Mamun

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answered Jun 11 '18 at 21:38

cdhowie

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '18 at 21:39

2

You could take a lazy approach with ? (Matches as few characters as possible).

var string = 'server1:127.0.0.1,server2:127.0.0.2,server3:127.0.0.3';

console.log(string.replace(/:.*?(,|$)/g, '|'));

answered Jun 11 '18 at 21:39

Nina Scholz

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Replace a multiple times a substring in javascript

2 Answers2