CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rubyregexgsub
Un3qual
Un3qual

Reputation: 1342

Replace text in brackets gsub

I would like to replace text inside of brackets, and that has a colon and a u.

For example, Here is a link [u:person]! would become Here is a link <a href="/user/person">Person</a>! I am not very experienced with regex, and I am having problems with \1 and $1

Here is the regex that I am using now: 

string.gsub(/\[(\w*).*?\]/, "<a href='/user/\1'>\1</a>")

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1687

Answers (4)

Jojodmo
Jojodmo

Reputation: 23616

You could use a regex like this:

/\[u\:([\S]+)\]/

and replace it with:

<a href='/user/#{$1}'>#{$1}</a>

Here's a breakdown of what it the regex does:

  • First, we have \[, which is just the literal [ character
  • Next, we have u and \:, which are the literal u and : character respectively
  • Next, we have ([\S]). The parentheses make a capturing group, which is what #{$1} will be filled in with in the replace part of the regex. [\S]+ looks for all non-whitespace characters.
  • Lastly, we have \], which is just the literal ] character.

Your code should look something like this:

string.gsub('/\[u\:([\S]+)\]/', '<a href='/user/#{$1}'>#{$1}</a>')

Here is a live test of the regex: https://regex101.com/r/vK0iO2

Upvotes: 0

August
August

Reputation: 12558

I changed your regular expression to this, so that person is captured:

/\[\w*:(.*?)\]/

And then replaced it with this String:

"<a href=\"/user/#{$1}\">#{$1.capitalize}</a>"

You were close with $1, it just needs to be evaluated as Ruby (using String interpolation, inside a block):

string.gsub(/\[\w*:(.*?)\]/) { "<a href=\"/user/#{$1}\">#{$1.capitalize}</a>" }

Upvotes: 1

Yu Hao
Yu Hao

Reputation: 122463

Make the regex /\[\w*:(.*?)\]/ so that person can be captured instead of u. Then use a single quoted string so that \1 isn't interpreted as \x01.

str = "Here is a link [u:person]!"
puts str.gsub(/\[\w*:(.*?)\]/, '<a href="/user/\1">\1</a>')
# => Here is a link <a href="/user/person">person</a>!

Upvotes: 1

vks
vks

Reputation: 67988

\[[^\]]*u:([^\]]*)\]

Try this.Replace by <a href='/user/\1'>\1</a>.See demo.

https://regex101.com/r/gX5qF3/13

Upvotes: 0

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