replace

Replaces text in a container with other text.

# Metadata

Platforms: desktop, server, mobile OS: mac, windows, linux, ios, android Introduced: 1.0 Security:

# Syntax

replace oldString with newString in container

# Params

- oldString : Any expression that evaluates to a string, and specifies the text to replace. - newString : Any expression that evaluates to a string, and specifies the text to replace the oldString with. - container : A field, button, or variable, or the message box.

# Examples

replace "A" with "N" in thisVariable -- changes all As to Ns

replace return with empty in field 1 -- runs lines together

replace somethingOld with "\" in it

replace ".com" with somethingNew in URL "file:stuff.txt"

put "12.34.56.78" into p replace "." with empty in char 4 to -1 of p -- 12.345678

# Description

Use the replace command to replace all instances of one string with another string.

The replace command is faster than the replaceText function, but does not support regular expressions: you can replace only an exact string of text.

>*Note:* The replace command is not recursive and behaves in much the > same way a text editor would perform a plain text search, looking at each > character in the text once only. This means that if there are two > overlapping instances of matching text, only the first will be replaced. > For example:

put "x:y:y:y:y:x:" into tChangeMe replace ":y:" with "::" in tChangeMe put tChangeMe -- returns x::y::y:x

> If the goal were to remove every lone y within two colons that appears > in the text, it would be more effective to take advantage of how the > text to remove is contained within two identical characters, along with > the itemDelimiter property, such as in the following:

put "x:y:y:y:y:x" into tChangeMe set the itemDelimiter to ":" repeat with tCount = 2 to (the number of items in tChangeMe) - 1 if item tCount of tChangeMe is "y" then put empty into item tCount of tChangeMe end if end repeat put tChangeMe -- returns x:::::x

>*Important:* You can use the replace command on a > field, but doing so removes any formatting (fonts, styles, > colors, and sizes) in the field. To preserve existing styling in > fields use the replace in field command.

# Tags

text processing,

# See

- **property:** itemDelimiter - **control structure:** function - **keyword:** string, field - **object:** field - **glossary:** command, regular expression, container, property - **command:** find, filter, replace, replace in field - **function:** replaceText