Question

ASP Regular Expression to replace WHITE SPACE

Asked by: Laride

Can someone please de-mistyfy regular expressions for me?

i have a string with any number of space characters in it, and i want them all, indevidually replaced with a " "...

eg, where plusses are spaces, not plusses

"10+2++3" would be "10 2  3"

this is my code :

Dim RegEx
Set RegEx = New RegExp
RegEx.Pattern = "\s"
RegEx.Global = True
description2 = RegEx.Replace(description, " ")

                                  
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Asked On
2009-09-01 at 09:46:13ID24698598
Tags

ASP

,

regEx

,

regular expression

,

replace

Topics

Active Server Pages (ASP)

,

Regular Expressions

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
15

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Answers

 

by: evilrixPosted on 2009-09-01 at 09:50:10ID: 25233456

The \s meta character will match any white space
http://www.regular-expressions.info/reference.html

 

by: BadotzPosted on 2009-09-01 at 10:07:10ID: 25233626

In JavaScript, it would be:

var x = description.replace(/\s/g,'&nbsp;');

I'm thinking there is a "Replace" function in VBScript, and that might be an easier solution in this case?

 

by: madprogrammer1988Posted on 2009-09-01 at 10:16:58ID: 25233708

I would either use the Javascript Regular Expression above of just use the code below in VBScript

Description = Replace(Description, " ", "&nbsp;")

                                              
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by: BadotzPosted on 2009-09-01 at 10:40:21ID: 25233920

Shouldn't that be:

Description = Replace(Description, " ", "&nbsp;")

                                              
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Select allOpen in new window

 

by: BadotzPosted on 2009-09-01 at 10:40:59ID: 25233926

Well I'll be dipped...one more time...

Shouldn't that be:

Description = Replace(Description, " ", "&nbsp;")

 

by: madprogrammer1988Posted on 2009-09-01 at 10:49:51ID: 25234011

Yeh should be - for some reason EE stripped it out!

 

by: BadotzPosted on 2009-09-01 at 11:07:21ID: 25234193

I think it was more like extracting fat from bacon: it was "rendered" out ;-)

 

by: LaridePosted on 2009-09-02 at 03:21:27ID: 25239475

er none of them seem to work for propperly for me.

description = "12x10 print      glossy    "

Replace(description, " ", "&nbsp;") gives :
"12x10&nbsp;print      glossy    "

and in js,

var x = description.replace(/\s/g,'&nbsp;'); gave me the same :
"12x10&nbsp;print      glossy    "

when i need
"12x10&nbsp;print&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;glossy&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"

it only seems to replace the single space string... ?

 

by: LaridePosted on 2009-09-02 at 03:25:33ID: 25239502

erm... i think i may have made a big fat boo boo... i think it is working... my string is just not as it appears...

if i type it in as i say, it replaces fine...

this string is coming from a form post... ive got a feeling that this is where my problem lies afterall ...

my apologies!

 

by: madprogrammer1988Posted on 2009-09-02 at 13:39:24ID: 25245451

You would want the following

Description = Replace(Description, " ", "&nbsp;")
Description = Replace(Description, "  ", "&nbsp;")
Description = Replace(Description, "   ", "&nbsp;")
Description = Replace(Description, "    ", "&nbsp;")

something like this should do the job? (Copy all of them)

 

by: BadotzPosted on 2009-09-02 at 13:45:04ID: 25245518

madprogramme:
What if there are 5 spaces? Or 6? Or 4,567?

In that case, either a loop (worst) or a regex (best) is the solution.

I'd supply it, but my VBScript is not up to snuff. JavaScript, no problem (http:#a25233626).

 

by: madprogrammer1988Posted on 2009-09-02 at 13:58:11ID: 25245634

Fine, ill stop being lazy :)

This should set you on your way?

'Start by trimming leading/trailing spaces
str = Trim(str)
 
'Now, while we have 2 consecutive spaces, replace them
'with a single space...
Do While InStr(1, str, "  ")
  str = Replace(str, "  ", " ")
Loop

                                              
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by: BadotzPosted on 2009-09-02 at 14:11:30ID: 25245737

Try this:

Function RemoveWhiteSpace(strText)
    Dim RegEx
    Set RegEx = New RegExp
    RegEx.Pattern = "\s+"
    RegEx.Multiline = True
    RegEx.Global = True
    strText = RegEx.Replace(strText, "&nbsp;")
    RemoveWhiteSpace = strText
End Function

 

by: LaridePosted on 2009-09-03 at 01:54:11ID: 31623128

All this code has been very helpful ... thank you both very much

 

by: BadotzPosted on 2009-09-03 at 05:49:58ID: 25250079

No worries - glad to help.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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