CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregex
Avinash Prabhakar
Avinash Prabhakar

Reputation: 483

replacing pipe in string

Hello I need to remove all occurrences of | from a string. This is what I am doing currently

var mystring = "this|is|a|test"
console.log(mystring.replace(/|/g , ","));

This gives me this result: ,t,h,i,s,|,i,s,|,a,|,t,e,s,t, This is not what I want. Why is this not working?

When I try the following, it works for commas.

var mystring = "this,is,a,test"
console.log(mystring.replace(/,/g , ":"));

This gives me ----> this:is:a:test

Why does it not work for OR and how can I fix it?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 5992

Answers (7)

halfbrown
halfbrown

Reputation: 9

You have to escape special characters like "|" with a backslash. Try replacing your last line with this:

console.log(mystring.replace(/\|/g , ","));

I tested the above in Chrome and it looks to do what you're trying to do.

See the following regarding Special Characters for more details on when and how to escape special characters:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp

Upvotes: 0

Pardeep Deswal
Pardeep Deswal

Reputation: 26

Pipe symbol is a special charcter. you have to use escape charcter.

console.log(mystring.replace(/\|/g , ","));

Upvotes: 0

willeM_ Van Onsem
willeM_ Van Onsem

Reputation: 476659

That's because the pipe character (|) is interpreted as the regex-or.

You can however use the pipe char between square brackets, like [|]:

var mystring = "this|is|a|test"
console.log(mystring.replace(/[|]/g , ","));

regex101 demo

Square brackets are usually used to write a sequence of characters, but a (positive) side-effect is that most special characters are interpreted literally inside a square bracket environment, as is specified by the regex101 explanation next to the regex:

  • [|] match a single character present in the list below
    • | the literal character |

Upvotes: 5

Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton

Reputation: 26444

Pipe characters must be escaped

var mystring = "this|is|a|test"
console.log(mystring.replace(/\|/g, ","));

Upvotes: 1

Carlos Reyes
Carlos Reyes

Reputation: 136

| is a special character, and needs to be escaped with \

var mystring = "this|is|a|test";
console.log(mystring.replace(/\|/g , ","));

Upvotes: 1

Owais Khan
Owais Khan

Reputation: 47

You just need to escape the |,so if you need this,is,a,test,you need to do console.log(mystring.replace(/\|/g , ","));

Upvotes: 1

Rayon
Rayon

Reputation: 36599

Escape | character.

var mystring = "this|is|a|test"
console.log(mystring.replace(/\|/g, ","));

Upvotes: 10

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