Regular Expression question...

[rasimmer]

Curious to know if it's possible to do a different replace for each match in a string.

strText = "12345 John w3rser John 234rw John sdfasadg"

Dim objRegEx : Set objRegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp") objRegEx.Global = TRUEobjRegEx.IgnoreCase = TrueobjRegEx.Pattern = "(John)."
strText = objRegEx.Replace(strText, "$1 Smith ")
WScript.Echo strText
So, this will replace John with John Smith in the string. Now , what if I wanted to give John a different last name for each instance:

arrLastNames = Array("Smith", "Jones", "Vierra", "Hicks")

Is there a way to step through each match as an index and do a replace? So, the first instance would be John Smith, the next John Jones, etc.

[Gyorgy Nemesmagasi]

Hey Ras, is this what you are looking for?

Code: Select all

	

	Dim strText: strText = " Set ComputerName = Computer123 'It needs to be replaced"
	Dim objRegEx : Set objRegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp") 
objRegEx.Global = TRUE
objRegEx.IgnoreCase = True
objRegEx.Pattern = "(S*s*ComputerNames*=s*)(S+)"
	strText = objRegEx.Replace(strText, "$1NewValue")
WScript.Echo strText
	

[Gyorgy Nemesmagasi]

If you processing a multiline string the situation is a bit differnet. You can
change the code if you have DOS text (the line break is CrLF):

Code: Select all

	
objRegEx.Multiline = True
objRegEx.Global = True
objRegEx.IgnoreCase = True
objRegEx.Pattern = "^(s*WSIDs*=s*)(S+)s*$"
	
strText = objRegEx.Replace(strText, "$1NewWSID" & vbCrLf & "USER=SYSTEM")
	

The objRegEx.Multiline = True tells the regexp engine the ^ match all lines begining and $ match all lines end. This is a simplified meaning but in your situation is OK.

The pattern:
^ line begin
( submatch start
s white space char
* any times (0 is allowed)
WSID as the text WSID
s white space char
* any times (0 is allowed)
= as text =
s white space char
* any times (0 is allowed)
) stop submatch, it will be the $1
( submatch start
S non-white space char
+ at least ones
) submatch end, it will be the $2
s white space
* any times (0 is allowed)
$ end if the line

You can find the scripting reg exp engine's syntax definition on the MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.85).aspx
and here is the .Net one (e.g. for PowerShell), it has more features:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.71).aspx