CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregex
Paul Ness
Paul Ness

Reputation: 113

Special character causing issues with JS replacement

I have this code:

var fileData = '<div name="test1"><h1>Test Div 1</h1></div><!-- Start: FindMe --><div name="findme"></div><!-- End: FindMe -->';
var findInDom = "<!-- Start: FindMe -->.*?<!-- End: FindMe -->";
var result = fileData.replace(findInDom, "");
console.log(result);

I'm trying to find everything from and including:

<!-- Start: FindMe -->

and 

<!-- End: FindMe -->

But this code below is not replacing eveything from <!-- Start: FindMe --> to <!-- End: FindMe --> so I'm guessing it's a special character issue with --> causing issues maybe?

My HTML:

<div name="test1"><h1>Test Div 1</h1></div><!-- Start: FindMe --><div name="findme"></div><!-- End: FindMe -->

My Regex/replace:

var findInDom = "<!-- Start: FindMe -->.*?<!-- End: FindMe -->";

My Regex with variable:

var findInDom = /<!-- Start: " + name + " -->.*?<!-- End: " + name + " -->/;

--- name being a variable.

Any ideas why this is not replacing?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 49

Answers (2)

Reid Horton
Reid Horton

Reputation: 536

findInDom is a string, but you're treating it like a regular expression.

Instead, you want to use a regular expression like so:

var findInDom = /<!-- Start: FindMe -->.*?<!-- End: FindMe -->/;

If you want to insert the values of variables into your regex, use the regex constructor instead:

var name = "FindMe";
var findInDom = "<!-- Start: " + name + " -->.*?<!-- End: " + name + " -->";
var regex = new RegExp(findInDom);
var result = fileData.replace(regex);

Upvotes: 2

user1211
user1211

Reputation: 1515

You are using String to replace. Try fileData.replace(new RegExp(findInDom, 'g'),"")

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions