Best way to change [b]...[/b] to <b>...</b>

[chrisvmarle]

Hi there, I'm looking for a (= the best) way to replace [ b ]Some text[ / b ] (without spaces) by <b>Some text</b>.

I've tried these two:

# no. 1
$to_edit =~ s/\[b\](.*)\[\/b\]/\<b>$1\<\/b>/isg;

# no. 2
$to_edit =~ s/\[b\]/\<b>/isg;
$to_edit =~ s/\[\/b\]/\<\/b>/isg;

But the firstone only takes the first [ b ] and the last [ / b ], so [ b ]This is bold[ / b ], this not, [ b ]This again [ / b ] will turn out in <b>This is bold[ / b ], this not, [ b ]This again </b>

And the problem with the second one is it is possible to only include [ b ] and so make the rest of the page Bold. wich I don't want my users to be able to.

I hope you understand my problem and maybe even have a solution

Mzzl, Chris

[amy2go]

$to_edit =~ s/\[b\](.*?)\[\/b\]/\<b>$1\<\/b>/isg;

I just added the ? in the inner set of parentheses(.*?)

-Amy

[chrisvmarle]

What does it (the questionmark) do?

I hope you can explain so I can understand and never forget

Mzzl, Chris

[amy2go]

The * is known as a quantifier (which says any number of occurrences). There are other quantifiers:
+ which says one or more occurrences
? which says zero or one occurrences
{n} which says exactly n occurrences
{n,m} which says from n to m, inclusive, occurrences

The * and + quantifiers are greedy, in that they match the maximum number of occurrences that satisfy the regular expression (i.e. your expression (.*) included anything between and including other 's and 's). To make it non-greedy, you can use the ? after the * or + because the ? says zero or one occurrences. This means that it will match the least number of occurrences that satisfy the regular expression.

Did that clear things up?

[amy2go]

forgot to escape those bold tags

i.e. your expression (.*) included anything between \[b\] and \[/b\] including other \[b\] 's and \[/b\] 's

[amy2go]

Oh well, not very good at VB script here, but you get what I'm saying.

-Amy

[dmittner]

If I may, I have a similar problem, though my goal is a tab more complex. Say, for example, I have the following:

[b]this is a test[/b]

And what I want to do is replace all the 'i's, between [b] and [/b] with something else, preserving the other characters around the 'i's.

Here's what I'm currently attempting, using a similar syntax as above:

$to_edit =~ s/\[b\](.*?)i(.*?)\[\/b\]/\<b>$1$newchar$2\<\/b>/isg;

Why it no worky?

[amy2go]

dmittner >>
Your code worked fine - (of course, you need to initialize the $newchar variable to something first or it will just delete all the i's) like: $newchar = a; will replace all the i's with a's between the opening and closing bold tags. Or you could simply 'hard-code' it like: $1a$2

Amy

[dmittner]

Hmm.. I tested it again and it's only replacing the first 'i', and not the second. The only way I got it to replace the second one was to do:

while ( $string =~ /\[b\].*?i.*?\[\/b\]/i ){
  $string =~ s/\[b\](.*?)i(.*?)\[\/b\]/\[b]$1SUB$2\[\/b]/isg;
}
$string =~ s/\[b\]/<b>/isg;
$string =~ s/\[\/b\]/<\/b>/isg;

[amy2go]

You're right, my mistake. It was only replacing the first i. Sorry.

Amy