regexp

[Guest]

im trying to remove(technically condensing) duplicated strings

   var str:String = ActionLoader.data;(lets pretend it reads <BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>hello)

   var myPattern:RegExp = /<BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>/g;

   str.replace(myPattern, "<BREAK>")

   var myPattern:RegExp = /<BREAK><BREAK>/g;

   str.replace(myPattern, "<BREAK>")

   trace("ActionLoader.data=["+str+"]");

i guess i dont fully understand regexp because this made since to me until i tried it

also tried just the word BREAK without the <> incase it was some sort of escape string nonsense

and tried tinkering with qouting the area between the /"forwardslashes"/

to no avail however the string will remain unmodified,anyone know what i've done wrong?

thanks

[Ned Murphy · Accepted solution]

The replace method returns a new string, it does not modify the string it acts upon.

Try:

    var myPattern:RegExp = /<BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>/g; 

    trace(str.replace(myPattern, "<BREAK>"));

or reassign string to the processing of the method, as in...

   var myPattern:RegExp = /<BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>/g;

   str = str.replace(myPattern, "<BREAK>"));

In case your thinking is off at the end, in none of what you show are you changing the value of the ActionLoader.data

[Guest]

i see what you mean, thanks again ned

[Ned Murphy]

You're welcome

[Andrei1-bKoviI]

In addition to syntax corrections, you can use a single pattern to cover all number of duplicate occurrences instead of trying to figure how many duplicates code may encounter:

var myPattern:RegExp = /(<BREAK>)+/g;
var str:String = "<BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>hello";
str = str.replace(myPattern, "$1");
trace(str);
str = "<BREAK><BREAK><BREAK><BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>hello";
str = str.replace(myPattern, "$1");
trace(str);
str = "<BREAK><BREAK><BREAK><BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>hello<BREAK><BREAK><BREAK>blah";
str = str.replace(myPattern, "$1");
trace(str);