Regular Expression On-The-Fly Testing For ColdFusion, Java, And JavaScript
Often times, when answering Regular Expression questions on CF-Talk or in emails, I don't want to go through the bother of creating a ColdFusion page to test the expressions. I would jump into something like The RegEx Coach, but that only does Perl style regular expressions (I think). To remedy this, I have thrown together a page that will take a regular expression and try running it in ColdFusion, Java, and Javascript.
Take a look:
http://www.bennadel.com/resources/demo/regular_expression_replace/
I am eventually going to put it into bennadel.com/util/ when I get a few minutes. It is not perfect yet, but it does a pretty good job I think. It translates the regular expressions for use in ColdFusion and Java/Javascript in terms of group references. It performs all the replace calls within individual TRY / CATCH blocks so you can see any error messages that were thrown for each attempt.
If you are interested in the code that is performing this page:
| <!--- Kill extra output. ---> | |
| <cfsilent> | |
| <!--- Set page settings. ---> | |
| <cfsetting | |
| showdebugoutput="false" | |
| /> | |
| <!--- Param form variables. ---> | |
| <cfparam | |
| name="FORM.target_text" | |
| type="string" | |
| default="You have some sexy legs." | |
| /> | |
| <cfparam | |
| name="FORM.regex" | |
| type="string" | |
| default="(sexy)(?= legs)" | |
| /> | |
| <cfparam | |
| name="FORM.regex_replace" | |
| type="string" | |
| default="very $1" | |
| /> | |
| <!--- Set default result values. ---> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.CFResult = "" /> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.JavaResult = "" /> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.CFRegex = "" /> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.CFRegexReplace = "" /> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.JavaRegex = "" /> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.JavaRegexReplace = "" /> | |
| <!--- Try to run the ColdFusion regex replace. ---> | |
| <cftry> | |
| <!--- Try to clean the for CF. ---> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.CFRegex = ToString( FORM.regex ).ReplaceAll( "(?<!\\)\$([\d]+)", "\\$1" ) /> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.CFRegexReplace = ToString( FORM.regex_replace ).ReplaceAll( "(?<!\\)\$([\d]+)", "\\$1" ) /> | |
| <!--- Run the replace. ---> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.CFResult = REReplace( FORM.target_text, REQUEST.CFRegex, REQUEST.CFRegexReplace, "ALL" ) /> | |
| <!--- Catch any errors. ---> | |
| <cfcatch> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.CFResult = CFCATCH.Message /> | |
| </cfcatch> | |
| </cftry> | |
| <!--- Try to run the Java regex replace. ---> | |
| <cftry> | |
| <!--- Try to clean the for Java. ---> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.JavaRegex = ToString( FORM.regex ).ReplaceAll( "(?<!\\)\$([\d]+)", "\\$1" ) /> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.JavaRegexReplace = ToString( FORM.regex_replace ).ReplaceAll( "(?<!\\)\\([\d]+)", "\$$1" ) /> | |
| <!--- Run the replace. ---> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.JavaResult = ToString( FORM.target_text ).ReplaceAll( REQUEST.JavaRegex, REQUEST.JavaRegexReplace ) /> | |
| <!--- Catch any errors. ---> | |
| <cfcatch> | |
| <cfset REQUEST.JavaResult = CFCATCH.Message /> | |
| </cfcatch> | |
| </cftry> | |
| </cfsilent> | |
| <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> | |
| <html> | |
| <head> | |
| <title>Regular Expression Testing @ Kinky Solutions by Ben Nadel</title> | |
| <!-- Styles. --> | |
| <style type="text/css"> | |
| body { background-image: url( "http://www.bennadel.com/images/global/background_logo.jpg" ) ; background-position: top right ; background-repeat: no-repeat ; margin: 20px 20px 20px 20px ; } | |
| body, td { font: 11px verdana ; } | |
| h2 { color: #FA3E0A ; font: 25px verdana ; margin: 0px 90px 15px 0px ; } | |
| h3 { color: #FA3E0A ; font: 16px verdana ; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px ; } | |
| h4 { color: #333333 ; font: bold 13px verdana ; margin: 0px 0px 5px 0px ; } | |
| p, ul, ol, table { line-height: 18px ; margin: 0px 90px 12px 0px ; } | |
| a, a.red { color: #FA3E0A ; } | |
| form { margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px ; } | |
| input, select, textarea { font: 11px verdana ; vertical-align: middle ; } | |
| input, textarea { padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px ; } | |
| input.button { line-height: 11px ; } | |
| div.code, div.codefixed { border: 1px solid #999999 ; margin-bottom: 18px ; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px ; overflow: auto ; width: 95% ; } | |
| div.codefixed { height: 200px ; } | |
| div.code ul, div.codefixed ul { font-family: monospace, verdana ; font-size: 11px ; list-style-type: none ; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px ; padding-left: 0px ; } | |
| div.codefixed ul { width: 1200px ; } | |
| div.code ul li, div.codefixed ul li { background-color: #F5F5F5 ; margin-bottom: 1px ; padding: 1px 3px 1px 3px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab1, div.codefixed ul li.tab1 { padding-left: 30px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab2, div.codefixed ul li.tab2 { padding-left: 60px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab3, div.codefixed ul li.tab3 { padding-left: 90px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab4, div.codefixed ul li.tab4 { padding-left: 120px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab5, div.codefixed ul li.tab5 { padding-left: 150px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab6, div.codefixed ul li.tab6 { padding-left: 180px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab7, div.codefixed ul li.tab7 { padding-left: 210px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab8, div.codefixed ul li.tab8 { padding-left: 240px ; } | |
| div.code ul li.tab9, div.codefixed ul li.tab9 { padding-left: 270px ; } | |
| #pagefooter { color: #666666 ; font-size: 10px ; font-style: italic ; margin: 30px 0px 0px 0px ; } | |
| #pagefooter a { color: #666666 ; text-decoration: none ; } | |
| #pagefooter a:hover { color: #FA3E0A ; text-decoration: underline ; } | |
| form { | |
| padding-top: 20px ; | |
| } | |
| textarea.input { | |
| height: 100px ; | |
| width: 300px ; | |
| } | |
| textarea.output { | |
| height: 70px ; | |
| width: 300px ; | |
| } | |
| button.process { | |
| font-size: 16px ; | |
| margin: 0px 15px 0px 15px ; | |
| padding-bottom: 10px ; | |
| padding-top: 10px ; | |
| width: 120px ; | |
| } | |
| p.output { | |
| margin-bottom: 0px ; | |
| } | |
| p.translated { | |
| margin-bottom: 17px ; | |
| } | |
| span.translatedfrom { | |
| background-color: #ffCC66 ; | |
| } | |
| span.translatedto { | |
| background-color: #FCCCCC ; | |
| } | |
| td p { | |
| margin-right: 0px ; | |
| } | |
| </style> | |
| </head> | |
| <body> | |
| <cfoutput> | |
| <h2> | |
| Regular Expression Testing | |
| </h2> | |
| <p> | |
| Enter your target text and regular expression for a text REPLACE. | |
| See how this works in ColdFusion, Java, and Javascript. The regular | |
| expression will automatically be translated to use "\" or "$" | |
| depending on the language. | |
| </p> | |
| <form action="#CGI.script_name#" method="post"> | |
| <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> | |
| <tr valign="top"> | |
| <td> | |
| <h4> | |
| Target Text: | |
| </h4> | |
| <p> | |
| <textarea name="target_text" class="input">#FORM.target_text#</textarea> | |
| </p> | |
| <h4> | |
| Regular Expression: | |
| </h4> | |
| <p> | |
| <textarea name="regex" class="input">#FORM.regex#</textarea> | |
| </p> | |
| <h4> | |
| Regular Expression Replace: | |
| </h4> | |
| <textarea name="regex_replace" class="input">#FORM.regex_replace#</textarea> | |
| </td> | |
| <td valign="middle"> | |
| <button class="process"> | |
| Process<br /> | |
| Regular<br /> | |
| Expression | |
| </button> | |
| </td> | |
| <td> | |
| <h4> | |
| ColdFusion Result - REReplace(): | |
| </h4> | |
| <p class="output"> | |
| <textarea name="cf_result" class="output">#REQUEST.CFResult#</textarea> | |
| </p> | |
| <p class="translated"> | |
| Translated for CF: <br /> | |
| <span class="translatedfrom" | |
| onclick="prompt( 'RegEx:', this.innerHTML );" | |
| >#HtmlEditFormat( REQUEST.CFRegex )#</span> | |
| » | |
| <span class="translatedto" | |
| onclick="prompt( 'RegEx:', this.innerHTML );" | |
| >#HtmlEditFormat( REQUEST.CFRegexReplace )#</span> | |
| </p> | |
| <h4> | |
| Java Result - ToString().ReplaceAll(): | |
| </h4> | |
| <p class="output"> | |
| <textarea name="java_result" class="output">#REQUEST.JavaResult#</textarea> | |
| </p> | |
| <p class="translated"> | |
| Translated for Java:<br /> | |
| <span class="translatedfrom" | |
| onclick="prompt( 'RegEx:', this.innerHTML );" | |
| >#HtmlEditFormat( REQUEST.JavaRegex )#</span> | |
| » | |
| <span class="translatedto" | |
| onclick="prompt( 'RegEx:', this.innerHTML );" | |
| >#HtmlEditFormat( REQUEST.JavaRegexReplace )#</span> | |
| </p> | |
| <h4> | |
| JavaScript Result - replace(): | |
| </h4> | |
| <p class="output"> | |
| <textarea name="javascript_result" class="output"></textarea> | |
| </p> | |
| <p class="translated"> | |
| Translated for JavaScript: <br /> | |
| <span class="translatedfrom" | |
| onclick="prompt( 'RegEx:', this.innerHTML );" | |
| >#HtmlEditFormat( REQUEST.JavaRegex )#</span> | |
| » | |
| <span class="translatedto" | |
| onclick="prompt( 'RegEx:', this.innerHTML );" | |
| >#HtmlEditFormat( REQUEST.JavaRegexReplace )#</span> | |
| </p> | |
| <script type="text/javascript"> | |
| var objForm = document.forms[ 0 ]; | |
| var objJSResult = objForm.elements[ "javascript_result" ]; | |
| try { | |
| objJSResult.value = objForm.elements[ "target_text" ].value.replace( | |
| new RegExp( | |
| "#JSStringFormat( REQUEST.JavaRegex )#", | |
| "g" | |
| ), | |
| "#JSStringFormat( REQUEST.JavaRegexReplace )#" | |
| ); | |
| } catch( objError ){ | |
| objJSResult.value = objError.message; | |
| } | |
| </script> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </table> | |
| </form> | |
| <p id="pagefooter"> | |
| Copyright Ben Nadel @ <a href="http://www.bennadel.com" target="_blank">Kinky Solutions</a><br /> | |
| Updated on March 20, 2007 | |
| </p> | |
| </cfoutput> | |
| </body> | |
| </html> |
Want to use code from this post? Check out the license.
Reader Comments
Very cool!!!!
Thanks dude. I got so tired of finding my test.cfm page :)
Another CF RegEx utility also exists at http://www.cftopper.com/contentfiles/tools/regularExpTester.cfm
It works quite well, also. Like Ben, I typically use other tools for most of my quick regex tests (RegexTester for Eclipse). If I need something more CF-centric, though, I've used the tool above.
It's nice to have options.
That one is much prettier than mine :)
Maybe, but it ain't the bees knees, either. :-) This is why most of us code monkeys first and designers second. Or last...
I'm not sure how to add links, here, but this is an amusing code monkey reset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Wy7gRGgeA
Holy crap that was the coolest video / song ever!
I thought so, too. A buddy of mine sent it too me. I think it was the "boring manager Rob" part he liked so much. :-) It makes me laugh every time I watch it.
Very nice (the regex tester that is, though the video is awesome too). I hope you have a timeout set for that page though!
Perfect; exactly what I was looking for! Search engines get it right sometimes :)
I swear Ben... you keep coming up #2 in Google every damned time I search for something! I place bets with myself when I hit the enter key to see where you'll show up in the search results.
I'm interested in how you're converting from ColdFusion to Javascript regexps and back - is there some easy way to convert between the two syntaxes?
@Brian,
Ha ha, glad to amuse you with my indexing :)
As far as switching from Javascript to ColdFusion regular expression, there is really not much logic to it at all. The only difference is the back-reference: ColdFusion uses "\" where as Java and Javascript use "$". Other than that, I just wrap it in a TRY/CATCH as the support is different for regular expressions.
Guys, hi. Maybe this is not appropriate place to ask, but can anybody tell me Regex for all tags except four: <tr><td></td></tr>. I need to leave only this tags in the text and delete all others.
@Kirill,
The regex can be simple or more complex depending on how clean your code is. Here is a basic pattern for what you are looking for:
</?(?!(tr|td|/))[^\s>]+[^>]*>
If you have tags with attributes that *might* have the ">" character within it, then things get more complex and you have to take into account quoted attributes.
I have a string from database which returns me differents html tags including textarea tag. I only want to remove the textarea.
Can anyone help me plz.
Thanks