help with string replace - for doing selective replace

[Prasad S]

Hello

I wish to replace all the characters in a string except those which
are inside '<' & '>' characters. And there could be multiple
occurences of < & > within the string.

e.g. string = "this is an example of <how> many words could be hidden
<under> these characters"

now, from this string all the characters should be searched & replaced
by a certain logic except <how> & <under>

I am accepting the string from a textarea form field and there can be
no or multiple occurences of words within < >

Any help will be highly appreciated.

[Evertjan.]

Prasad S wrote on 20 aug 2004 in comp.lang.javascript:

I wish to replace all the characters in a string except those which
are inside '<' & '>' characters. And there could be multiple
occurences of < & > within the string.

e.g. string = "this is an example of <how> many words could be hidden
<under> these characters"

s = "an example of <how> words <under> these characters"

s = s.replace(/[^<]*(<[^>]*>)[^<]*/g,'$1')
--
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)

[Evertjan.]

Prasad S wrote on 26 aug 2004 in comp.lang.javascript:

"Evertjan." <ex**************@interxnl.net> wrote in message
news:<Xn********************@194.109.133.29>...

s = "an example of <how> words <under> these characters"
s = s.replace(/[^<]*(<[^>]*>)[^<]*/g,'$1')

Thanks for a very prompt response! I tried your suggestion, its
retruning the following:

s = "an example of <how> words <under> these characters"
s = s.replace(/[^<]*(<[^>]*>)[^<]*/g,'$1')
result: <how>, <under>

However, i wish to have the following result:
e.g. i want to replace all 'a' s with 'Z' in the string which is not
within < & >
s = "an example of <how many> words <as good as> these characters"
RESULT should be: "Zn exZmple of <how many> words <as good as> these
chZrZcters"
i.e. it should replace all the a's which are not inside the < & > with
Zs

<script type="text/javascript">

Sin="an example of <how many> words <as good as> these characters"

Sout = ""
outside = true
for (i=0;i<Sin.length;i++) {
x = Sin.substr(i,1)
if (x=='<')outside = false
if (x=='>')outside = true
if (x=='a'&&outside) x = 'Z'
Sout+= x
}
alert(Sout)

</script>
--
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress,
but let us keep the discussions in the newsgroup)

[bruce]

pr*********@rediffmail.com (Prasad S) wrote in message news:<be**************************@posting.google. com>...

Hi Evertjan

Thanks for a very prompt response! I tried your suggestion, its
retruning the following:
s = "an example of <how> words <under> these characters"

s = s.replace(/[^<]*(<[^>]*>)[^<]*/g,'$1')

result: <how>, <under>

However, i wish to have the following result:

e.g. i want to replace all 'a' s with 'Z' in the string which is not
within < & >

s = "an example of <how many> words <as good as> these characters"

RESULT should be: "Zn exZmple of <how many> words <as good as> these
chZrZcters"

i.e. it should replace all the a's which are not inside the < & > with
Zs

I have tried several different ways, still not able to crack this....

Any help will be useful....

"Evertjan." <ex**************@interxnl.net> wrote in message news:<Xn********************@194.109.133.29>...

s = "an example of <how> words <under> these characters"

s = s.replace(/[^<]*(<[^>]*>)[^<]*/g,'$1')

I don't know that this can be done in one line of code. I can do it
in two lines. I'm too busy to write the syntax now, however, here is
my idea.

You can use regular expressions to SPLIT the original string into an
array of strings, splitting by <.*> (in other words, splitting the
string by <how> and <under> in your example, creating 3 substrings).

Then it's a simple replace statement for each substring of the
array.

[Dr John Stockton]

JRS: In article <be**************************@posting.google.com >,
dated Fri, 20 Aug 2004 06:12:36, seen in news:comp.lang.javascript,
Prasad S <pr*********@rediffmail.com> posted :

I wish to replace all the characters in a string except those which
are inside '<' & '>' characters. And there could be multiple
occurences of < & > within the string.

Can the string be of the form " x < y < z > a > ? ", If so, some record
of depth-of-quote is called for.

--
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