Remove first and last character of line

[millisys]

Hello programmers, embarassing question to ask, but I cannot figure out how to do do some StringRegExpReplace tasks. I have tried looking in the forums.

1] Remove first and last character of a line, for example - the underscores in the following sentence "_early bird_"

I have tried using the expressions "[\z\w]" and "[\Z\w]" without success.

2] Remove a single character, for example - removing the "b" in the following sentence "early b bird"

I have tried using the "[.]" expression for single characters without success.

Thank you for your help.

[enaiman]

1. You can do that without employing StringRegExp - just use StringTrimLeft and StringTrimRight

2. You need to specify the number of chars ".{1}"

[millisys]

1. You can do that without employing StringRegExp - just use StringTrimLeft and StringTrimRight

2. You need to specify the number of chars ".{1}"

Hi einman, I've been to Hobart as well as Launceston and Bicheno. Tasmania is an awesome island.

I tried the following but it didn't work. What am I doing wrong?

StringRegExpReplace("early b bird","[.{1}]", "")

Thanks

[enaiman]

This will work:

StringRegExpReplace("early b bird", "\s.{1}\s", " ")

You need to match the spaces before and after the letter too.

Glad you liked Tasmania

Edited May 6, 2011 by enaiman

[millisys]

Cool, thank you so much. I can't believe I forgot about the StringTrimRight/Left functions.

Speaking of the \s expression. I have been struggling with removing multiple spaces using one StringRegExpReplace line. For example reducing occurences of 2 or more adjacent spaces to one space.

Thanks.

[GEOSoft]

You could also use StringMid() to advantage when you only want to remove first and last.

$sStr = StringMid($sStr, 2, StringLen($sStr) -2)

[GEOSoft]

I have been struggling with removing multiple spaces using one StringRegExpReplace line. For example reducing occurences of 2 or more adjacent spaces to one space.

Thanks.

Something wrong with $sStr = StringStripWS($sStr, 4) or possibly better yet $sStr = StringStripWS($sStr, 7)?

To do it with a RegEx it would be

$sStr = StringRegExpReplace($sStr, "\h+", " ")

EDIT:

Regular Expressions are a very powerfull tool indeed but you have to learn when to use them. In both cases that you brought up, simple Sting manipulation with the String*() functions would work just fine.

If you just want to play with and learn SREs then try the PCRE Toolkit in my Sig.

Edited May 6, 2011 by GEOSoft

[millisys]

Thanks GEOSoft,

Exactly like you said, I started using the StringRegExp and tried to use it for everything and overlooked StringStripWS.

Awesome!

[millisys]

Would the following be the best way to remove a single letter ['L' in this case] at the start of a line or is there something better?

$text = "L TR"

if StringMid($text, 2, 1) = " " then $text = StringTrimLeft($text, 1)

[GEOSoft]

That will do it.

[millisys]

Thank you GEOSoft

[GEOSoft]

Glad to help. We are here to help those that make an effort before posting in the forum which is very unlike someone who PMed me for help today even after I had given him some good advice in his thread.