replace & to & , gt to gt in javascript

Question

I want to replace &amp to & using javascript. Here is the sample code of mine.EmployeeCode could contain &. The EmployeeCode is selected from Datagrid and its showed in "txtEmployeeCode" textbox. But if the EmployeeCode contains any & then it shows &amp into the textbox. How could &amp be removed from EmployeeCode? can anyone help...

function closewin(EmployeeCode) {
     opener.document.Form1.txtEmployeeCode.value = EmployeeCode;
     this.close();
}

Use the 'replace' function of JavaScript – Tanveer Shaikh Jan 07 '14 at 06:08 — Tanveer Shaikh, Jan 07 '14 at 06:08

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 17 '17 at 17:01

13

With this:

function unEntity(str){
   return str.replace(/&amp;/g, "&").replace(/&lt;/g, "<").replace(/&gt;/g, ">");
}

function closewin(EmployeeCode) {
     opener.document.Form1.txtEmployeeCode.value = unEntity(EmployeeCode);
     this.close();
}

OPTIONAL If you are using jQuery, this will decode any html entity (not only & < and >):

function unEntity(str){
   return $("<textarea></textarea>").html(str).text();
}

Cheers

edited Feb 17 '17 at 17:01

Jeremy

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answered Jan 07 '14 at 05:57

Edgar Villegas Alvarado

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He asked for it. Look at the question title – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:01
I stand corrected. I should really read questions more carefully – MultiplyByZer0 Jan 07 '14 at 06:02
Regex?! Could you please make it more inefficient? Perhaps jQuery can help. – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:03
@bjb568 Microoptimization is evil, regex is perfect for this problem – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:04
thanks for your answer. But i don't know why this is not woring – rafat Jan 07 '14 at 06:05
Hmm... Perhaps you could explore and implode it a couple times just to make sure you have maximum inefficiency. – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:05
I did explain. It's slow. Just use a string, not regex. – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:06
@bjb568 No, regex wouldn't exist if they were *always* 'slow'. Have you read about microoptimization or premature optimization? Go and do it :) – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:08
Stop lecturing me. Just change it to a string. It's more efficient, easier to read, and doesn't misuse regex. No, regex is for convenience only. – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:10
I won't, that would be **microoptimization**. An EmployeeCode won't be a huge string so it's stupid optimizing it to save a couple milliseconds. – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:15
sorry i had made mistakes. Now it works.Thanks again for your answer @Edgar Villegas Alvarado – rafat Jan 07 '14 at 06:22
@rafat Welcome. Very glad it helped you :) Cheers – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:25
can you tell me from where i can get very basic knowledge of JQuery? @EdgarVillegasAlvarado – rafat Jan 07 '14 at 06:27
Here you have a link: http://net.tutsplus.com/sessions/jquery-succinctly/?search_index=1 However, the best book I read about jQuery was "JQuery in Action" by Manning. Definitely recommended! – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:30
Not just micro-optimization. It promotes the appropriate use of regex. – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:40
You should replace `&` *last*! Otherwise the ampersand could be double-replaced, e.g. `unEntity(">")` will give `">"` – mwfearnley Mar 18 '22 at 11:48

MultiplyByZer0 · Answer 2 · 2017-02-24T05:44:20.880

3

Try this:

var str = "&amp;";
var newstring = str.replace(/&amp;/g, "&");

For more information, see MDN's documentation.

edited Feb 24 '17 at 05:44

answered Jan 07 '14 at 05:55

MultiplyByZer0

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1. Regex is a powerful tool 2. It's the only way to make it replace all instances of &amp, instead of just the first one – MultiplyByZer0 Jan 07 '14 at 06:05
Wha? str.replace('&', "&"); – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:08
1

@bjb568 Oh, you criticize without knowing a bit. What you suggest would only replace the first coincidence. With `str = "A&B&C"` your code fails. Please learn before criticizing – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:18
[MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/replace) "The replace() method returns a new string with some or all matches of a pattern replaced by a replacement. The pattern can be a string or a RegExp, and the replacement can be a string or a function to be called for each match." Nothing about the first one. – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:20
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@bjb568 oh kid, read well the docs. Or better open your console and eval this: `"A&B&C".replace('&', "&");` It doesn't return `A&B&C` as it should. – Edgar Villegas Alvarado Jan 07 '14 at 06:24
Gah. I they could do a better job of explaining what "some or all" means. Anyway… str.split('&amp').join('&') – bjb568 Jan 07 '14 at 06:39

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

1

In case you don't want to replace all of those html entities, you can cheat with this:

var div = document.createElement('textarea');
div.innerHTML = "bla&amp;bla"
var decoded = div.firstChild.nodeValue;

your converted value is now in decoded

see Decode & back to & in JavaScript

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Jan 07 '14 at 06:00

Jorg

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score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 07 '14 at 06:42

-1

A regex-abuse-free method:

 function closewin(EmployeeCode) {
      opener.document.Form1.txtEmployeeCode.value = EmployeeCode.split('&amp').join('&');
      this.close();
 }

answered Jan 07 '14 at 06:42

bjb568

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You'll do it again for &lt and &gt. And dont forget that optional ; behind the entities. – Rolf Feb 20 '18 at 19:58

replace & to & , gt to gt in javascript

4 Answers4