Regex in Flex 3: How to Wrap Quotations Around a Dynamic String?

Question

Hi,

I need some Regex help.

I need to find beacon_ followed by an alphanumeric code and then wrap it in quotation marks. For something static, like the example, below it's straight forward.

myReturn = myReturn.replace( 'id=beacon_80291ee9b3', 'id="beacon_80291ee9b3"');

But, my problem is that the part after beacon is a random alphanumeric code. (However, it is always the same length). For example, the beacon part could be:

• beacon_c8ac873136

• beacon_dc83b5953e

• beacon_7a910d03d8

etc.

The haystack that I'll search will look like:

myReturn = "blah blah id=beacon_80291ee9b3 blah blah";

Thanks.

-Laxmidi

Answer 1

myReturn = myReturn.replace('id=beacon_(\w{10})', 'id="beacon_$1"');

Answer 2

You use a set like [0-9a-z] to match an alphanumeric character, and use {10} to specify how many. Use parentheses to specify what to match, and $1 to use the match in the replacement:

myReturn = myReturn.replace('id=(beacon_[0-9a-z]{10})', 'id="$1"');