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Basically, I'm trying to replace parts of a string using elements from an associative array. However, I need to grab elements based on backreferences generated from capturing groups in a replace() expression.

Using the first capturing group, I created this code, which doesn't work:

content = content.replace(/%(\w+)%/g,this.vars["$1"]);

(The regex works fine... I just can't get it to grab the array element.)

How would I go about implementing something like this?

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1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

String.replace can take a function as the second argument.

var that = this,
    re = /%(\w+)%/g;

content = content.replace(re, function (str, p1)
{
    return that.vars[p1];
});
share|improve this answer
    
Oh wow.. So simple; why didn't I think of that? Thanks! :) –  BraedenP Apr 18 '11 at 5:00
    
Because you didn't know that replace can take a function? Because it's non-trivial? You'll have to ask a new question (probably on a diffent SE site) to get an answer to that one ;-) –  Matt Ball Apr 18 '11 at 5:02
    
Hehe.. I know replace can take a function; for some reason it just didn't cross my mind. I'm just waiting until the time counts down so I can accept your answer. –  BraedenP Apr 18 '11 at 5:04

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