CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-apps-script
beano
beano

Reputation: 952

DocumentApp replaceText regex syntax

I am looking for regular expression syntax that will replace all types of special characters.

I have a Google document with question titles between << and >> markers. I am trying to replace all markers with the form response (for simplicity I am replacing it with a blank value ' ' in the script example below).

My current script:

var form = FormApp.getActiveForm();
var body = DocumentApp.openById('').getBody();
var items = form.getItems();
  for(i=0;i<items.length;i++){
    body.replaceText('<<items[i].getTitle()>>','');
 }

This falls over when a user includes a question mark ?, brackets () or an apostrophe ' (and I am sure many others) in their question title.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 184

Answers (1)

Amit Agarwal
Amit Agarwal

Reputation: 11268

You can consider escaping the special characters such as '*?()|' that are used in regular expressions. Here's a sample:

  var form = FormApp.getActiveForm();
  var body = DocumentApp.openById('').getBody();
  var items = form.getItems();
  for(i=0;i<items.length;i++){
    var title = items[i].getTitle();
    title = title.replace(/[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, '\\$&');    
    body.replaceText("<<" + title + ">>",'');
  }

Upvotes: 2

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