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RegEx Replace exact string

Nov 27, 2009 5:09 PM

I am trying to replace an HTML code string. Here is what I have

public function convertToXHtml(str:String):String {
var pattern:RegExp;
 
// Check for all carriage returns or breaks
pattern = /<p style=".*"><span style=".*"><\/span><\/p>/ig; 
str = str.replace(pattern,"<br />");
 
return str;
}

I shortened this down for readability.

I have something like this to filter

<p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; color:#444444; "></span></p><p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:18px; color:#990000; "><strong>Donec lacinia, metus vitae tristique laoreet</strong></span></p><p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; color:#444444; "></span></p>

I want my pattern search only to return all empty code strings that have no data so I can replace it with breaks (<br />)

<p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; color:#444444; "></span></p><p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; color:#444444; "></span></p>

My pattern returns all of it, thus giving me all <br /> even my data.

What am i missing?

307 Views 4 Replies Latest reply: msakrejda, Dec 1, 2009 7:58 AM

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1. LinkMc,

Nov 29, 2009 10:46 PM in reply to LinkMc

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I hate to do this, but I really need help on this one....

Bump..

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2. msakrejda,

Nov 30, 2009 8:09 AM in reply to LinkMc

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I think the greedy match in .* is getting you. Try replacing .* with [^"]+, and see if that works. It's not quite right (it breaks on embedded escaped double-quotes inside your style attributes), but it should be good enough.

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3. LinkMc,

Nov 30, 2009 10:01 PM in reply to msakrejda

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Nope... tried it, I really can't believe it's that hard, but I am not really good at regular expressions.

Thanks for the try though, I really appreciate your help.

Link

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4. msakrejda,

Dec 1, 2009 7:58 AM in reply to LinkMc

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical"
    horizontalAlign="center" verticalAlign="middle">
    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.formatters.DateFormatter;

            private const s:String = '<p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; color:#444444; "></span></p><p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:18px; color:#990000; "><strong>Donec lacinia, metus vitae tristique laoreet</strong></span></p><p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; color:#444444; "></span></p>';

            public function convertToXHtml(str:String):String {
                var pattern:RegExp = /<p style="[^"]*"><span style="[^"]*"><\/span><\/p>/ig;
                str = str.replace(pattern,"<br />");

                return str;
            }

        ]]>
    </mx:Script>
    <mx:Button label="replace" click="result.text = convertToXHtml(s)"/>
    <mx:HBox>
        <mx:TextArea id="original" width="300" height="400" text="{s}"/>
        <mx:TextArea id="result" width="300" height="400"/>
    </mx:HBox>

</mx:Application>

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