VBScript code to replace text NOT in HTML tags // snook.ca

VBScript code to replace text NOT in HTML tags

November 1, 2001

I had been looking for a solution to this problem for a little while and there was a post on ASPMessageboard that got me started. It pointed me to an article on 4GuysFromRolla that included a function as well as some search criteria.

First the function:

Function RegExpReplace(strInput, strPattern, strReplace) 

  ' Use <?> to indicate the match you wish to replace 



  ' Create and setup several variables: 

  Dim regEx, Match, Matches, Position, strReturn 

  Position = 1 

  strReturn = "" 



  ' Set up the regular expression: 

  Set regEx = New RegExp 

  regEx.Pattern = strPattern 

  regEx.IgnoreCase = True 

  regEx.Global = True 



  ' Get all the matches for it: 

  Set Matches = regEx.Execute(strInput) 



  ' Go through the Matches collection 

  ' and build the output string: 

  For Each Match in Matches 

    strReturn=strReturn & Mid(strInput, Position, Match.FirstIndex+1-Position)

    strReturn=strReturn & Replace(strReplace, "<?>", Match.Value) 

    Position = Len(Match.Value) + Match.FirstIndex + 1 

  Next 



  ' Add any text after the last match 

  strReturn = strReturn & Mid(strInput, Position, Len(strInput))

  RegExpReplace = strReturn 

End Function

But the example search criteria in the post didn't quite work for me...
strHTML = RegExpReplace(strHTML, "strong(?![^<]+>), "*<?>*")

...it kept replacing text in html tags as well as text not in html tags. So, I banged around with it and came up with this modification:

strHTML = RegExpReplace(strHTML, "(?![^<]+>)" + 

              strSearch + "(?![^<]+>)", strReplace)

strSearch is the text that I'm looking for and strReplace is what I want to replace it with.

I've done a few quick tests and it seems to be working well.

Jonathan Snook.ca

VBScript code to replace text NOT in HTML tags