MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Q: Regex Find and Replace delete surrounding tags

DiapDealer · 05-30-2015, 01:24 PM

Your slash is backwards in your replace expression.

Should be \1 and not /1

I liked your first expression best:

Code:

<span class="calibre5">[^<>]+</span>

You just forgot to capture the span contents...

Code:

<span class="calibre5">([^<>]+)</span>

... so you could stick them back in without the span tags using just \1 for the replace.

**Note that your expression will ignore any nested span situations (or any situations with <i> or <b> or the like included in the span). In other words it won't match anything in:

Code:

<span class="calibre5">The law is <span>oops</span> inevitable.

Nested tags can cause problems when trying to use regex alone to alter them if you're not careful.

My suggestion (and I know this going to sound like rampant self-promotion, but this is exactly why I created it the first place)?? I'd use my editor plugin that allows you to remove an opening span and and it's matching closing tag without having to worry about nesting and the like.

05-30-2015, 01:24 PM	#2
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,680 Karma: 205039118 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Your slash is backwards in your replace expression. Should be \1 and not /1 I liked your first expression best: Code: <span class="calibre5">[^<>]+</span> You just forgot to capture the span contents... Code: <span class="calibre5">([^<>]+)</span> ... so you could stick them back in without the span tags using just \1 for the replace. *Note that your expression will ignore any nested span situations (or any situations with <i> or <b> or the like included in the span). In other words it won't match anything in: Code: <span class="calibre5">The law is <span>oops</span> inevitable. Nested tags can cause problems when trying to use regex alone to alter them if you're not careful. My suggestion (and I know this going to sound like rampant self-promotion, but this is exactly* why I created it the first place)?? I'd use my editor plugin that allows you to remove an opening span and and it's matching closing tag without having to worry about nesting and the like. Last edited by DiapDealer; 05-30-2015 at 01:36 PM.