Regular expression replace a word by a link

Question

I want to write a regular expression that will replace the word Paris by a link, for only the word is not ready a part of a link.

Example:

    i\'m l         


        

Answer 1

You could search for this regular expression:

(]*>.*?)|Paris

This regex matches a link, which it captures into the first (and only) capturing group, or the word Paris.

Replace the match with your link only if the capturing group did not match anything.

E.g. in C#:

resultString = 
    Regex.Replace(
        subjectString, 
        "(]*>.*?)|Paris", 
        new MatchEvaluator(ComputeReplacement));

public String ComputeReplacement(Match m) {
    if (m.groups(1).Success) {
        return m.groups(1).Value;
    } else {
        return "Paris";
    }
}