xHarbour Reference Documentation > Function Reference

HB_RegExReplace()

Searches and replaces characters within a character string using a regular expression.

Syntax

HB_RegExReplace(<cRegEx>         , ;
                <cString>        , ;
                <cReplace>       , ;
               [<lCaseSensitive>], ;
               [<lNewLine>]      , ;
               [<nMaxMatches>]   , ;
               [<nWichMatch>]      ) --> cNewString

Arguments

<cRegEx>

This is a character string holding the search pattern as a literal regular expression. Alternatively, the return value of HB_RegExComp() can be used.

<cString>

This is the character string being searched for a match.

<cReplace>

A character string that replaces all matched substrings in <cString>.

<lCaseSensitive>

This parameter defaults to .T. (true) so that the resulting compiled regular expression performs a case sensitive search. Passing .F. (false) results in a case insensitive search.

<lNewLine>

This parameter defaults to .F. (false).

<nMaxMatches>

This is a numeric value indicating the maximum number of replacements. The default value is zero which replaces all matches.

<nWichMatch>

This parameter is numeric and specifies the type of matches to replace. It defaults to zero which means that the function replaces the whole match and sub-matches, if any. The value 1 instructs the function to replace only whole matches, 2 means the first sub-match in the whole match, 3 is the second sub-match in the whole match, and so forth.

Return

The function returns a copy of <String> where substrings matching the regular expression are replaced with <cReplace>.

Description

Function HB_RegExReplace() searches a character string using a regular expression and replaces matching substrings with <cReplace>. It is similar to the function StrTran() but more powerful since the search condition is a regular expression.

Info

See also:	HAS, HB_AtX(), HB_RegEx(), HB_RegExAll(), HB_RegExComp(), HB_RegExSplit(), LIKE, StrTran(), Stuff()
Category:	Character functions , Regular expressions , xHarbour extensions
Source:	rtl\regexrpl.prg
LIB:	xhb.lib
DLL:	xhbdll.dll