Doesn't work replaceText with regular expression in google scripts

Question

Found a lot of information, where people say it should work like this:

var id = '/*doc ID here*/';
var doc = DocumentApp.openById(id);
var body = doc.getBody();

var word = 'tototo'
var tempword = 'blablabla';
body.replaceText("\\b"+word+"\\b", tempword);

But it is not working.

Thу full idea is to find every word LALALA and make it a link, but don't make a link from words LALALAL or ALALALA etc.

function addLinks(word, siteurl) {
    var id = '/*doc ID here*/';
    var doc = DocumentApp.openById(id);
    var body = doc.getBody();

    var tempword = 'ASDFDSGDDKDSL2';
    var element = body.findText(word);
    // var element = body.findText("\\b"+word+"\\b");
   

    while(element) {
      var start = element.getStartOffset();
    
      var text = element.getElement().asText();
      text.replaceText("\\b"+word+"\\b", tempword);
      text.setLinkUrl(start, start+tempword.length-1, siteurl);
      
      var element = body.findText(word);

    }
    
    body.replaceText(tempword, word);
  }

addLinks('LALALA', 'example.com');

But it makes only one link and not from 1 word as needed, but from 16 letters...

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 09 '21 at 12:19

I believe your goal is as follows.

You want to search the text of LALALA and replace it with var tempword = 'ASDFDSGDDKDSL2', and then, you want to set the hyperlink to var tempword = 'ASDFDSGDDKDSL2' in Google Document.

In this case, how about the following modification?

Modified script:

Please modify addLinks and test it again.

function addLinks(word, siteurl) {
  var id = '/*doc ID here*/';
  var doc = DocumentApp.openById(id);
  var body = doc.getBody();
  var tempword = 'ASDFDSGDDKDSL2';
  var searchText = "\\b" + word + "\\b";
  var element = body.findText(searchText);
  while (element) {
    var start = element.getStartOffset();
    var text = element.getElement().asText();
    text.replaceText(searchText, tempword);
    text.setLinkUrl(start, start + tempword.length - 1, siteurl);
    element = body.findText(searchText, element);
  }
}

In your script,
- In order to search the next word of word, please use the method of findText(searchPattern, from).
- In your situation, I thought that the search work might be required to be also used as "\\b" + word + "\\b".
- body.replaceText(tempword, word); of the last line in addLinks replace tempword with word.
When this modified script is run, the text of LALALA is searched and replaced it with var tempword = 'ASDFDSGDDKDSL2', and then, the hyperlink is set to var tempword = 'ASDFDSGDDKDSL2'. On the other hand, ALALALA is not replaced.

Reference:

findText(searchPattern, from)

It doesn't work. Unfortunately... Just nothing changes in a document. If I change "\\b" + word + "\\b" to "LALALA" – it woks, but then ALALALA also becomes a link excepting the first letter A, of course. So, it is a problem, that regular expression doesn't work, but I can't understand why... — Vsevolod, Oct 09 '21 at 14:37
I see what the problem now. In my regular expression I use Cyrillic symbols (LALALA is an example here). What's is the problem with Russian letters? — Vsevolod, Oct 09 '21 at 14:57
@Vsevolod Thank you for replying. I'm glad your issue was resolved. About your new question, now I found [your new question](https://stackoverflow.com/q/69511092). I will check it. — Tanaike, Oct 09 '21 at 23:36

Doesn't work replaceText with regular expression in google scripts

1 Answers1

Modified script:

Reference: