Replace a string in JavaScript and PHP

Question

How can I replace this character | in JavaScript?

<html>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">

var str="data|data|data";
document.write(str.replace(/|/g,"<br />"));

</script>

In the output of given code, every character has the "< br />"

I don't know what is wrong with my code.. :)

Also, for PHP, I want the function to use if the input is

|string||

and the output should be

string

only. I want only the outer part of the string in PHP to be subtituted: ||hel||lo|| would become hel||lo.

Could I use trim()? I think trim() only applies to white spaces.

You chould post 2 separate questions (especially in different languages) as, well, 2 seperate questions. — instanceof me
– instanceof me, Commented Aug 2, 2010 at 9:47
Seconded - from your comments below, the PHP question seems to be slightly different from the JS one, but that was not obvious from the question. I'd say those two are different enough for posting as two different questions. — Piskvor left the building
– Piskvor left the building, Commented Aug 2, 2010 at 9:59

Piskvor left the building · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-02 10:02:46Z

4

~~You don't need a regular expression for this - if you pass a string as the first argument to replace(), it will be replaced literally:~~

~~var str='data|data|data'; str = str.replace('|', '');~~

...but it will only replace the first match. For a global replace, you need to specify the global flag:

var str='data|data|data';
var re = new RegExp('\|','g'); // G is the 'global' flag
str = str.replace(re,'');

In PHP, str_replace() works with string literals:

$str='data|data|data';
$str = str_replace('|', '', $str);
// $str == datadatadata

If you only want to remove the outer delimiters, use trim():

$str='|||data|data||data|';
$str = trim($str,'|');
// $str == 'data|data||data';

edited Aug 2, 2010 at 10:02

answered Aug 2, 2010 at 9:42

Piskvor left the building

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3 Comments

Felix Kling Over a year ago

That is not correct. In JavaScript, it will only replace the first occurrence of |, you have to use regular expressions here.

Vincent Dagpin Over a year ago

i want only the outer part of the string in php to be subtituted.. like "||hel||lo||" and the output would be "hel||lo"

Felix Kling Over a year ago

@vrynxzent: You can use trim() for this, see my answer.

Felix Kling · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-02 09:44:20Z

3

JavaScript:

You have to escape the pipe symbol:

document.write(str.replace(/\|/g,"<br />"));
//                       ---^

PHP:

You can pass another parameter to trim() that specifies which characters to remove:

$str = trim($str, '| ');

If you also want to remove the character in the middle of the string you can use str_replace():

$str = str_replace('|', '', $str);

answered Aug 2, 2010 at 9:44

Felix Kling

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Comments

Falle1234 · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-02 09:42:21Z

2

you need to escape the | character because it is used as OR in regex /a|b/ matches either a OR b. Try /\|/

Edit: To achieve wour last goal try doing it this way (alot of regex,I know):

document.write(str.replace(/(\|)+$/g,"").replace(/^(\|)+/g,"").replace(/(\|)+/g,"<br />"));

answered Aug 2, 2010 at 9:42

Falle1234

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Comments

Rubens Farias · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-02 09:41:40Z

1

In Javascript, you'll need to escape that pipe character:

alert("data|data|data".replace(/\|/g,"<br />"))

answered Aug 2, 2010 at 9:41

Rubens Farias

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