Multiple Regex replace

Question

I am boggled by regex I think I\'m dyslexic when it comes to these horrible bits of code.. anyway, there must be an easier way to do this- (ie. list a set of replace instanc

Answer 1

You could use a function replacement. For each match, the function decides what it should be replaced with.

function clean(string) {
    // All your regexps combined into one:
    var re = /@(~lb~|~rb~|~qu~|~cn~|-cm-)@|([{}":,])/g;

    return string.replace(re, function(match,tag,char) {
        // The arguments are:
        // 1: The whole match (string)
        // 2..n+1: The captures (string or undefined)
        // n+2: Starting position of match (0 = start)
        // n+3: The subject string.
        // (n = number of capture groups)

        if (tag !== undefined) {
            // We matched a tag. Replace with an empty string
            return "";
        }

        // Otherwise we matched a char. Replace with corresponding tag.
        switch (char) {
            case '{': return "@~lb~@";
            case '}': return "@~rb~@";
            case '"': return "@~qu~@";
            case ':': return "@~cn~@";
            case ',': return "@-cm-@";
        }
    });
}