I've a regex that will only match one character of the strings. I want to test the lentgh of its containing string and if it was greater than 4 then make the replacement. For example, the regex is /\d/. I want to use the functional form of replace to match 12345 but not 1234.

Something like:

text.replace(regex, function(match) {
       if (STRING.length > 4)
            return replacement
       else
            return match;
  });

Note: /\d/ is just an example. I didn't mention the real regex to focus on my real question, illustrated above.

I've a regex that will only match one character of the strings. I want to test the lentgh of its containing string and if it was greater than 4 then make the replacement. For example, the regex is /\d/. I want to use the functional form of replace to match 12345 but not 1234.

Something like:

text.replace(regex, function(match) {
       if (STRING.length > 4)
            return replacement
       else
            return match;
  });

Note: /\d/ is just an example. I didn't mention the real regex to focus on my real question, illustrated above.

• javascript
• regex

Share Improve this question Follow edited Apr 28, 2013 at 19:08 Iryn asked Apr 28, 2013 at 13:45 IrynIryn 25522 gold badges55 silver badges1313 bronze badges 1

• 1 for all those like me who didn't know you could pass a function to the replace function: developer.mozilla/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/… – Sebas Commented Apr 28, 2013 at 13:48

Add a ment  | 

3 Answers 3

Sorted by: Reset to default 5

Or if you want to do it that way:

function replaceWithMinLength (str, minLength) {
   str.replace(/\w+/, function(match) {
      if (match.length > minLength) {
        return match;
      } else {
        return str;
      }
   });
}

You're putting the horse before the cart. You would be better off:

if(string.length > 4) {
  string.replace('needle','replacement');
}

So by “containing string”, you mean like the same sequence of digits? Match them all at once:

text.replace(/\d{5,}/g, function(string) {
    return string.replace(/\d/g, function(match) {
        return replacement;
    });
});

For example. The \d{5,} can easily be adapted to any type of string-thing.