Posted By

mgeduld on 01/19/11

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template replace regularexpressions String regexp strings RegularExpression

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kure69

Template system (replace items in a string with items from a hash)

/ Published in: ActionScript 3

This simple construct allows you to replace parts of a string with items in a hash table (e.g. and Object).

Example:

var replacements : Object = { SPEED : "slow", ADJECTIVE : "green", VERB: "slithers" };

var template: String = "The %{SPEED} %{ADJECTIVE} fox %{VERB} over the %{ADJECTIVE} dog.";

trace( makeReplacements( template, replacements ) );

//output: The slow green fox slithers over the green dog.

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function makeReplacements( template : String, replacements : Object ) : String
{
	var regExp : RegExp = new RegExp( "(%\{(.*?)})","" );
	var match : Array;
	while( match = regExp.exec( template ) )
	template = template.replace( regExp, replacements[ match[ 2 ] ] );
 
	return template;
}

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Posted By: mgeduld on January 19, 2011

Incidentally, it pisses me off that I have to run the regular expression twice (lines 5 and 6). Originally, I thought I could do it like this:

var regExp : RegExp = new RegExp( "(%{(.*?)})","g" ); //NOTE the "g" template = template.replace( regExp, replacements[ "$2" ] );

The "g" (global) switch will do all the replacements at once, so no need for a while loop. The $2 refers to the second (inner) parenthesis in the RegExp: (.*?). That will match the word inside the %{ } construct. The 2 in match[ 2 ], above, is doing the same thing. So if the construct is %{ADJECTIVE}, "$2" and match[ 2 ] match ADJECTIVE.

However, what I discovered is that Actionscript won't let you pass the "$2" into another function or use it as a key to a hash. So replacements[ "$2" ] inside a replace() won't get parsed to replacements[ "ADJECTIVE" ]. It will literally look for replacements.$2.

That forced me to first extract ADJECTIVE, with the exec() method, and then to use that string directly in the replace() command. Not a huge deal to run a RegExp twice, but not ideal in terms of optimization.

Darn.

If anyone knows a way around this, let me know.

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