Backslash bug in JavaScript - javascript

I have a string that involves tricky \\ characters.
Below is the initial code, and what I am literally trying to achieve but it is not working. I have to replace the \" characters but I think that is where the bug is.
var current = csvArray[0][i].Replace("\"", "");
I have tried the variation below but it is still not working.
var current = csvArray[0][i].Replace('\"', '');
It is currently throwing an Uncaught TypeError: csvArray[0][i].Replace is not a function
Is there a way for Javascript to take my string ("\"") literally like in C#? Kindly help me investigate. Thanks!

If the sequence you want to match is a single backslash character followed by a quotation mark, then you need to escape the backslash itself because backslashes have special meaning in string literals. You then need to separately escape the quotation mark with its own backslash:
.replace("\\\"", "")
I believe that would also be true in C#.
Or you can simplify it by using single quotes around the string so that only the backslash needs to be escaped:
.replace('\\"', '')
If the first argument to .replace() is a string, however, it will only replace the first occurrence. To do a global replace you have to use a regular expression with the g flag, noting that backslashes need to be escaped in regular expressions too:
.replace(/\\"/g, '')
I'm not going to setup a demo array to exactly match your code, but here's a simple demo where you can see that a lone backslash or quote in the input string are not replaced, but all backslash-quote combinations are replaced:
var input = 'Some\\ test" \\" text \\" for demo \\"'
var output = input.replace(/\\"/g, '')
console.log(input)
console.log(output)

Related

Regex match with '\' slash and replace with '\\'?

I was converting normal string in to latex format.So i was created the latex code match and replace the \ single slash into \\ double slash.why the i need it Refer this link.I tried Below code :
function test(){
var tex="$$\left[ x=\left({{11}\over{2}}+{{\sqrt{3271}}\over{2\,3^{{{3}\over{2} $$";
var tex_form = tex.replace("/[\\\/\\\\\.\\\\]/g", "\\");
document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML=tex_form;//nothing get
}
test();
<p id="demo"></p>
Not getting any output data.But the match in this link
i wish to need replace the \ into \\
There are these issues:
The string literal has no backslashes;
The regular expression is not a regular expression;
The class in the intended regular expression cannot match sequences, only single characters;
The replacement would not add backslashes, only replace with them.
Here you find the details on each point:
1. How to Encode Backslashes in String Literals
Your tex variable has no backslashes. This is because a backslash in a string literal is not taken as a literal backslash, but as an escape for interpreting the character that follows it.
When you have "$$\left...", then the \l means "literal l", and so the content of your variable will be:
$$left...
As an l does not need to be escaped, the backslash is completely unnecessary, and these two assignments result in the same string value:
var tex="$$\left[ x=\left({{11}\over{2}}+{{\sqrt{3271}}\over{2\,3^{{{3}\over{2} $$";
var tex="$$left[ x=left({{11}over{2}}+{{sqrt{3271}}over{2,3^{{{3}over{2} $$";
To bring the point home, this will also represent the same value:
var tex="\$\$\l\e\f\t\[\ \x\=\l\e\f\t\(\{\{\1\1\}\o\v\e\r\{\2\}\}\+\{\{\s\q\r\t\{\3\2\7\1\}\}\o\v\e\r\{\2\,\3\^\{\{\{\3\}\o\v\e\r\{\2\}\ \$\$";
If you really want to have literal backslashes in your content (which I understand you do, as this is about LaTeX), then you need to escape each of those backslashes... with a backslash:
var tex="$$\\left[ x=\\left({{11}\\over{2}}+{{\\sqrt{3271}}\\over{2\\,3^{{{3}\\over{2} $$";
Now the content of your tex variable will be this string:
$$\left[ x=\left({{11}\over{2}}+{{\sqrt{3271}}\over{2\,3^{{{3}\over{2} $$
2. How to Code Regular Expression Literals
You are passing a string literal to the first argument of replace, while you really intend to pass a regular expression literal. You should leave out the quotes for that to happen. The / are the delimiters of a regular expression literal, not quotes:
/[\\\/\\\\\.\\\\]/g
This should not be wrapped in quotes. JavaScript understands the / delimiters as denoting a regular expression literal, including the optional modifiers at the end (like g here).
3. Classes are sets of single characters
This regular expression has unnecessary characters. The class [...] should list all individual characters you want to match. Currently you have these characters (after resolving the escapes):
\
/
\
\
.
\
\
It is overkill to have the backslash represented 5 times. Also, in JavaScript the forward slash and dot do not need to be escaped when occurring in a class. So the above regular expression is equivalent to this one:
/[\\/.]/g
Maybe this is, or is not, what you intended to match. To match several sequences of characters, you could use the | operator. This is just an example:
/\\\\|\\\/|\\\./g
... but I don't think you need this.
4. How to actually prefix with backslashes
It seems strange to me that you would want to replace a point or forward slash with a backslash. Probably you want to prefix those with a backslash. In that case make a capture group (with parentheses) and refer to it with $1 in this replace:
tex.replace(/([\\/.])/g, "\\$1");
Note again, that in the replacement string there is only one literal backslash, as the first one is an escape (see point 1 above).
why the i need it
As the question you link to says, the \ character has special meaning inside a JavaScript string literal. It represents an escape sequence.
Not getting any output data.But the match in this link
The escape sequence is processed when the string literal is parsed by the JavaScript compiler.
By the time you apply your regular expression to them, they have been consumed. The slash characters only exist in your source code, not in your data.
If you want to put a slash character in your string, then you need to write the escape sequence for it (the \\) in the source code. You can't add them back in with JavaScript afterwards.
Not sure if I understood the problem, but try this code:
var tex_form = tex.replace("/(\\)/g","\\\\");.
You need to use '(' ')' instead of '['']' to get a match for output.

Javascript regex replace with escaped backslash

I have a question about the replace backlash pattern with JavaScript replace method.
var display_user = "mycompany\bobandalice";
display_user = display_user.replace(/\\/g,"\\\\");
document.write(display_user);
I am hoping to substitute the backslash in the display_user with two back slashes so the document.write displays "mycompany\bobandalice" on the display.
Instead it displays "mycompanyobandalice".
What am I doing wrong ? (Thanks for your help)
The display_user variable does not have the backslash literal at all, so you have nothing to replace.
When "mycompany\bobandalice" string is evaluated the \b sequence is interpreted as a backspace.
So the replace does not replace anything because it's too late - the backslash is not and honestly - was not there ever.
The display_user string doesn't actually have a backslash character. Try escaping the backslash. Something like this:
var display_user = "mycompany\\bobandalice";
// ^ notice the escaped backslash
display_user = display_user.replace(/\\/g, '\');

How to remove backslash from a string in JavaScript

I have a string like this:
<tr><td><span class=\'label label-info\'>Dialed</span></td><td>9804292145453</td><td>A Jana</td><td>0sec</td><td>6:18PM, Mar 24, 2014</td></tr>
I want to remove the backslash & want result like this :
<tr><td><span class='label label-info'>Dialed</span></td><td>9804292145453</td><td>A Jana</td><td>0sec</td><td>6:18PM, Mar 24, 2014</td></tr>
Please help.
You've said what you quoted above is a string, but it's unclear whether you mean this (shortened a bit):
var str = "<tr><td><span class=\'label label-info\'>Dialed...";
...where what you've quoted is what you literally have within quotes, or this (note the backslashes):
var str = "<tr><td><span class=\\'label label-info\\'>Dialed...";
...where what you've quoted is the actual content of the string, not part of a string literal.
The first one above doesn't have any backslashes in it, it has escaped ' characters. The second one has backslashes in it.
To remove the backslahes from the second one:
str = str.replace(/\\/g, "");
When you give a regular expression with the g flag to replace, it applies globally throughout the string. Backslashes have special meaning in regular expressions, and so I've had to escape the backslash (with another backslash, it's the escape character for regular expressions as well as strings). So in the above, I'm saying to replace all backslashes with an empty string.
you can use RegExp to find backslash in JS string like this:
string.eplace(/\\\//g, "/");
demo

Javascript string replace with regex to strip off illegal characters

Need a function to strip off a set of illegal character in javascript: |&;$%#"<>()+,
This is a classic problem to be solved with regexes, which means now I have 2 problems.
This is what I've got so far:
var cleanString = dirtyString.replace(/\|&;\$%#"<>\(\)\+,/g, "");
I am escaping the regex special chars with a backslash but I am having a hard time trying to understand what's going on.
If I try with single literals in isolation most of them seem to work, but once I put them together in the same regex depending on the order the replace is broken.
i.e. this won't work --> dirtyString.replace(/\|<>/g, ""):
Help appreciated!
What you need are character classes. In that, you've only to worry about the ], \ and - characters (and ^ if you're placing it straight after the beginning of the character class "[" ).
Syntax: [characters] where characters is a list with characters.
Example:
var cleanString = dirtyString.replace(/[|&;$%#"<>()+,]/g, "");
I tend to look at it from the inverse perspective which may be what you intended:
What characters do I want to allow?
This is because there could be lots of characters that make in into a string somehow that blow stuff up that you wouldn't expect.
For example this one only allows for letters and numbers removing groups of invalid characters replacing them with a hypen:
"This¢£«±Ÿ÷could&*()\/<>be!##$%^bad".replace(/([^a-z0-9]+)/gi, '-');
//Result: "This-could-be-bad"
You need to wrap them all in a character class. The current version means replace this sequence of characters with an empty string. When wrapped in square brackets it means replace any of these characters with an empty string.
var cleanString = dirtyString.replace(/[\|&;\$%#"<>\(\)\+,]/g, "");
Put them in brackets []:
var cleanString = dirtyString.replace(/[\|&;\$%#"<>\(\)\+,]/g, "");

regex and javascript

using http://www.regular-expressions.info/javascriptexample.html I tested the following regex
^\\{1}([0-9])+
this is designed to match a backslash and then a number.
It works there
If I then try this directly in code
var reg = /^\\{1}([0-9])+/;
reg.exec("/123")
I get no matches!
What am I doing wrong?
Update:
Regarding the update of your question. Then the regex has to be:
var reg = /^\/(\d+)/;
You have to escape the slash inside the regex with \/.
The backslash needs to be escaped in the string too:
reg.exec("\\123")
Otherwise \1 will be treated as special character.
Btw, the regular expression can be simplified:
var reg = /^\\(\d+)/;
Note that I moved the quantifier + inside the capture group, otherwise it will only capture a single digit (namely 3) and not the whole number 123.
You need to escape the backslash in your string:
"\\123"
Also, for various implementation bugs, you may want to set reg.lastIndex = 0;.
In addition, {1} is completely redundant, you can simplify your regex to /^\\(\d)+/.
One last note: (\d)+ will only capture the last digit, you may want (\d+).

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