Replace all string occurrences

Question

I want to replace all the occurrences of [h2][/h2] in a JavaScript string For example, I have

var mystring = 'hii[h2][/h2]';

I want to get -> hii

so far I tried

mystring.replace(/[h2][\/h2]/g, "");

Possible duplicate of [How to replace all dots in a string using JavaScript](http://stackoverflow.com/q/2390789/1529630), but here with brackets instead of dots. — Oriol, Oct 10 '15 at 23:39

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 31 '19 at 07:40

8

You need to escape the square braces.

var mystring = 'hii[h2][/h2]';
let string = mystring.replace(/\[h2\]\[\/h2\]/g, '');
console.log(string);

edited Jan 31 '19 at 07:40

mitesh7172

answered May 20 '11 at 15:56

gen_Eric

Error: unterminated regular expression literal Source Code: `str = str.replace(/\[i\][\/i\]/g,'');` – Sourav May 20 '11 at 15:59
1

@Sourav: You forgot to escape the 2nd open square brace. – gen_Eric May 20 '11 at 16:01
@Sourav: You have to **escape** the `]` and `[`. – pimvdb May 20 '11 at 16:01

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 20 '11 at 15:57

2

Assuming nothing between those tags, you need to escape the [] also.

mystring.replace(/\[h2]\[\/h2]/g, "");

answered May 20 '11 at 15:57

Alex K.

Don't you have to escape the closing square brace? – gen_Eric May 20 '11 at 16:02
1

Nope, only [ is reserved; if its escaped a subsequent ] is just a regular character – Alex K. May 20 '11 at 16:05

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 20 '11 at 16:01

2

try this one:

str.replace(/\[h2\]\[\/h2\]/g,"");

note that you have to escape [ and ] if they form part of the text you want to replace otherwise they are interpreted as "character class" markers.

If the [h2] and [/h2] could also appear separate, you could use this one:

str.replace(/\[\/?h2\]/g,"");

edited May 20 '11 at 16:01

gen_Eric

answered May 20 '11 at 15:59

sergio

3 Answers3