need to change ' " ' to ' \" '

want to change a quotation to a \quotation for a form var

[willis1480]

I would like to change the folowing string in a form element:
"hello"

to

\"hello\"

How do i do something like this. currently using regular expressions, but cant figure how to match the quotations.

[Bernard Marx]

Try this demo.
Remember to replace the broken pipe¦ with a proper one.

[pre]
<script type="text/javascript">
function go()
{
    var str, elms, reg;
    elms = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
    str = elms.input.value;
    reg = /\'[red]¦[/red]\"/g
    elms.output.value = str.replace(reg,"\\$&")
}
</script>
<input type="text" id="input">
<input type="text" id="output">
<button onclick="go()">GO</button>
[/pre]

[willis1480]

thanks, I will try this. The regular expressions has been difficult for me. What did you mean "replace broken pipe with correct one"? Do you mean with the character I would like replaced?

[Bernard Marx]

I'll explain in HTML:

<p style="font-size:2em">
I mean that, when you copy & paste the code,
you should then replace<br>
this character: &#166;<br>
with this one: &#124;<br>
before you run the code.
</p>

[willis1480]

i got it thanks to your regular expression, but i could not get the rest of the code to work. This is what I ended up with:

function process(){
for(index = 0; index < document.form1.length; index++){
if(document.form1[index].value){
str = document.form1[index].value;
reg = /\'¦\"/g;
document.form1[index].value = str.replace(reg,"\\$&")
}
}
}

[Bernard Marx]

<update>
Ignore that below.

It's because you aren't changeing the broken ¦ pipe in the code!

-------------------------
Yeah. Strange one that.
Sure there's a decent explanation (just don't know what it is).
I had to work around it by using unicode char codes for the quote chars into the RegExp:

[pre]
<script>
function process(form)
{
  var elm, reg = /\u0027¦\u0022/g;
 for(index = 0; index < form.length; index++)
 {
 elm = form[index] 
 if(elm.value){
  elm.value = elm.value.replace(reg,"\\$&")
 }
 }
}
</script>
<form name="form1">
 <input type="text">
 <input type="text">
 <input type="text">
 <button onclick="process(this.form)">PROCESS</button> 
</form>
[/pre]

[willis1480]

no, i did change the broken pipe. Either way, got it working and thank you very much for your help.