Replacing Text using Wildcards?

[#1]

Hey everyone,

I searched the Internet for my problem, but didn't find an appropriate solution.

What I want to do is to replace all "<*>" (* = Wildcard) in a string.

For example, I have this string: <p>Bauers <strong>"Auto-Zeitung"</strong> erscheint zusätzlich als Pocket-Ausgabe. Die Aktion ist allerdings auf eine Ausgabe beschränkt, denn die Mini-Version dient vor allem einem Werbekonzept für das neue <strong>Volkswagen</strong>-Modell Up.</p>

And I want it to become this: Bauers "Auto-Zeitung" erscheint zusätzlich als Pocket-Ausgabe. Die Aktion ist allerdings auf eine Ausgabe beschränkt, denn die Mini-Version dient vor allem einem Werbekonzept für das neue Volkswagen-Modell Up.

Is it possible using the replace expression or is there another solution?

Thanks for help!

Regards

Daniel

[Anonymous]

Daniel,

No wildcards, in replace, as far as I know..

This one is probably not the best solution, but it should work:

=textbetween(YourTextField, '>','<', 1) & ' ' &

textbetween(YourTextField, '>','<', 2) &  ' ' &

textbetween(YourTextField, '>','<', 3) & ' ' &

...

[swuehl]

Hi Daniel,

I suggest that you use a macro function that will make use of regular expressions to remove the tags, like a JScript

function removeTags(rawText) {

return rawText.replace(/<[^>]*>/gi, "");

}

and then call this function in your load script.

Please see attached.

Regards,

Stefan

[#4]

Hi Stefan,

this sounds really good and thanks for the help so far. Do you know an appropriate function for VBscript? Or does this only work with JScript?

Regards,

Daniel

[swuehl · Accepted solution]

Hm, try this:

function removeTags(rawHTML)

   Dim objRegExp, strOutput

  Set objRegExp = New Regexp

  objRegExp.IgnoreCase = True

  objRegExp.Global = True

  objRegExp.Pattern = "<[^>]*>"

  'Replace all HTML tag matches with the empty string

  strOutput = objRegExp.Replace(rawHTML, "")

   removeTags = strOutput    'Return the value of strOutput

  Set objRegExp = Nothing

End Function

[#6]

Many thanks!! I would have never figured that out!

Have to remember this

[RonaldDoes]

Hi Stefan,

Your function appears to age well, it helped me out great today!

I've improved the RegEx-pattern a bit to also exclude &nsbp;-like tags from the source.

function removeTags(rawHTML)

  Dim objRegExp, strOutput
  Set objRegExp = New Regexp

  objRegExp.IgnoreCase = True
  objRegExp.Global = True
  objRegExp.Pattern = "<[^>]*>|&[^>]*;"

  'Replace all HTML tag matches with the empty string
  strOutput = objRegExp.Replace(rawHTML, "")

  removeTags = strOutput    'Return the value of strOutput

  Set objRegExp = Nothing

End Function

Thanks!