Regular Expressions - Strings

[atomman 1]

I can do very simple tasks with regular expressions, but beyond that i'm lost.

I need to detect all kinds of returns in a string copied from the windows clipboard (LF, CR, CRLF), then replace them with some html tags and new returns.

If there's multiple returns together, i don't want empty tags though. So...

"<p>i am a @CRLF string</p>"

and...

"<p>i am a @CRLF @CRLF string</p>"

needs to end up as...

"'<p>i am a</p>' & @CRLF & '<p>string</p>'"

[weaponx 15]

I need to detect all kinds of returns in a string

Do you mean line breaks?

[atomman 1]

yes, sorry

[weaponx 15]

$string = "Line 1 " & @CRLF & "Line2" & @CRLF & "Line 3" & @LF & "Line 4" & @CR & "Line 5"
$result = StringRegExpReplace($string, "(" & @CRLF & "|" & @CR & "|" & @LF & ")","<p></p>")
MsgBox(0,"",$result)

[atomman 1]

$string = "Line 1 " & @CRLF & @CRLF & "Line2" & @CRLF & "Line 3" & @LF & @CRLF & "Line 4" & @CR & "Line 5"
$result = StringRegExpReplace($string, "(" & @CRLF & "|" & @CR & "|" & @LF & ")","</p><p>")
MsgBox(0,"",$result)

Seems to work pretty good! If there's multiple line feeds back to back (see code), i get empty tags (<p></p>)

Unless you think i should do it differently, i'll just StringReplace("<p></p>", "") what is returned from above.

And thanks! This solves several issues for me.

[weaponx 15]

What do you want between the <p></p>???

[atomman 1]

nothing

If you have say, 3 line feeds, back to back, the code will return multiple empty tags (<p></p><p></p><p></p>) since it's replacing every line feed with the tags. I want to simply discard them -- or -- remove all but the first line feed, then replace the line feeds with the tags. In other words, if there's 2+ line feeds back to back, remove the first, then replace the remaining with the the tags. I would assume it's either that, or run another StringReplace() on what was returned to strip empty tags.

Edited January 25, 2008 by atomman

[weaponx 15]

Shoot, I got your back.

$string = "Line 1 " & @CRLF & "Line2" & @CRLF & @CRLF & "Line 3" & @LF & "Line 4" & @CR & "Line 5"
$result = StringRegExpReplace(StringStripWS($string, 4), "(" & @CRLF & "|" & @CR & "|" & @LF & ")","

")
MsgBox(0,"",$result)

StringStripWS -

flag 4 = strip double (or more) spaces between words

[atomman 1]

hot-diggty-dog!

i was hoping it could be done with one line!

you just made my day my friend. thank you much!

[therks 19]

Shoot, I got your back.

$string = "Line 1 " & @CRLF & "Line2" & @CRLF & @CRLF & "Line 3" & @LF & "Line 4" & @CR & "Line 5"
$result = StringRegExpReplace(StringStripWS($string, 4), "(" & @CRLF & "|" & @CR & "|" & @LF & ")","

")
MsgBox(0,"",$result)

StringStripWS -

flag 4 = strip double (or more) spaces between words

But what if he wants to keep double (or more) spaces between words? He just wants to strip double line breaks.

I mean, your code does what he wants, yes, but it's also doing something more.

It turns this:

"This is a string.  With double" & @CRLF & @CRLF & "spacing.  After each period." & @CRLF & @CRLF & "And two double.  Line breaks."

Into this:

"This is a string. With double" & @CRLF & "spacing. After each period." & @CRLF & "And two double. Line breaks."

When he might want this:

"This is a string.  With double" & @CRLF & "spacing.  After each period." & @CRLF & "And two double.  Line breaks."

Or maybe not, just thought I'd mention it in case.

[atomman 1]

Hi Saunders

His code removes all line feeds... and spaces. That's what i needed to do. In your example (2nd line), you show the output as having line feeds, but they're removed.

So far it seems to do exactly what i needed -- well, what it doesn't do i'm capable of making it do. I just needed a start. I have a tough time with reg-exp.