regex: Match when between text but not between digits

Question

Please help. I need a regular expression (to be used in javascript) to replace "." with "#" in a text containing Unicode characters. Replacement takes place only when "." appears between text but not between digits.

Input: "ΦΨ. ABC. DEF. 123.456"

Desired output: "ΦΨ# ABC# DEF# 123.456"

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You can use capturing groups in the regex and use back-references to obtain the required result:

 var re = /(\\D)\\.(\\D)/g; var str = 'ΦΨ. ABC. DEF. 123.456'; var subst = '$1#$2'; result = str.replace(re, subst); alert(result); 

Regex Explanation:

• \\D - A non-digit character
• \\. - A literal dot

The non-digit characters are captured into groups, and then inserted back with the help of $1 and $2 back-references.

Answer 2

try this:

var str =  "ΦΨ. ABC. DEF. 123.456";

str.replace(/[^\d.]+\.[^\d]/g, function (m) {
    return m.replace('.', '#')
});