正则表达式匹配尖括号外的文本

Question

I'm trying to replace all specific word occurrences outside angle brackets.

For example:

I want to replace "is" word in this string:

this is a <sample> string with <some> special words. this <is another> one

Find all "is" words out side the angle brackets, expected output:

th*is* *is* a <sample> string with <some> special words. this <is another> one

Answer 1

You can use a regular expression with a negative look-ahead, which will check that there is no closing > following a potential match, without any preceding < :

 let s = "this is a <sample> string with <some> special words. this <is another> one"; let result = s.replace(/is(?![^<>]*>)/g, "*$&*"); console.log(result);

Note that it will also match a third "is" by that logic.