Am I missing something? Is there a PCRE option to escape special literals in the replace parameter?

[guinness]

I'm trying to improve some code and was wondering is there some parameter/command in which I don't always have to escape special literals using _StringRegExpMetaCharacters? As it really increases the speed since I'm replacing entire functions. StringReplace is just even slower.

Local $sData = FileRead(@ScriptFullPath), $sReplace = '-\*--*\-'

; $sData = StringRegExpReplace($sData, '\Q(\E', $sReplace) ; This doesn't work correctly.

; Replace ( with *--*
$sReplace = _StringRegExpMetaCharacters($sReplace)
$sData = StringRegExpReplace($sData, '\Q(\E', _StringRegExpMetaCharacters($sReplace))

ConsoleWrite('Replacement String: ' & $sReplace & @CRLF & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite($sData & @CRLF)

Func _StringRegExpMetaCharacters($sString) ; By guinness 2013.
    Return StringRegExpReplace($sString, '([].|*?+(){}^$\\[])', '\\\1')
EndFunc   ;==>_StringRegExpMetaCharacters

[AZJIO]

Local $sData = FileRead(@ScriptFullPath), $sReplace = '-\*--*\-'

; $sData = StringRegExpReplace($sData, '\Q(\E', $sReplace) ; This doesn't work correctly.

; Replace ( with *--*
$sReplace = _StringRegExpMetaCharacters($sReplace)
$sData = StringRegExpReplace($sData, '\Q(\E', _StringRegExpMetaCharacters($sReplace))

ConsoleWrite('Replacement String: ' & $sReplace & @CRLF & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite($sData & @CRLF)

Func _StringRegExpMetaCharacters($sString) ; By guinness 2013.
    ; Return StringRegExpReplace($sString, '([].|*?+(){}^$\\[])', '\\\1')
    Return StringReplace($sString, '\', '\\')
EndFunc   ;==>_StringRegExpMetaCharacters

[guinness]

True, I was over-thinking this. Well that will speed it up at least.

Edit: There is no real big difference actually.

Edited July 1, 2013 by guinness

[jchd]

Sorry but I really don't get the purpose. 'Q(E' matches any opening parenthesis, then you escape a replacement string?

[guinness]

The overall purpose is because I'm replacing a marker in a script [Chr(1) -  SOH] with a function and I had an issue with certain characters being stripped.

Edit: Hmm, will have to re-test.

Edited July 1, 2013 by guinness

[guinness]

$sString = StringRegExpReplace('\\', '\\', '\')
ConsoleWrite($sString & @CRLF)

$sString = StringRegExpReplace('\\', '\\', '\\')
ConsoleWrite($sString & @CRLF)

You can see here what I was referring to. seems to be the only literal that doesn't work.

[jchd]

Am I misunderstanding the problem or is it only the replacement of 1, 2, 3,... and $1, $2, $3 as well in the replacement string that cause issues?

Does this fit your need?

$sString = StringRegExpReplace('$^|\d\n\t\r\f\a\1$1$2$3$0', '(?|\\([1-9])|\$(\d+)|\$\{(\d+)\})', '\${$1}')  ; note that $1 = \1, $2 = \2, etc.
ConsoleWrite($sString & @CRLF)

$n actually gets replaced by n with n > 0 but since they are alias of each other the semantics gets unchanged.

Edit: there at least one other form of back-reference allowed in replacement pattern (AFAICT): ${k} where k > 0

Edited July 1, 2013 by jchd