Parsing a string with RegExp 1

[Supra]

I'm going insane trying to figure out why this RegExp is cutting my string in half. The purpose of the pattern is to replace any "tags" within a "%%string%%" tag.

var data = '"%%string%%hello %%number%%1%%%end%%% and hello %%number%%2%%%end%%%.%%%end%%%"';
var pattern = /(?:"%%string%%)((.*?)(%%number%%([0-9])%%%end%%%))+/g;
var result = data.replace(pattern,'"%%string%%$2$4');

Expected Result: "%%string%%hello 1 and hello 2.%%%end%%%"
Actual Result: "%%string%% and hello 2.%%%end%%%"

Any ideas?

 

[feherke]

Hi

You have only one '%%string%%' so the pattern will match only 1 time. But you allow group 1 to match 1 or more times, so that will match 2 times.

var pattern = /(?:"%%string%%)((.*?)(%%number%%([0-9])%%%end%%%))/g;

var result=data;

while (result.match(pattern)) result=result.replace(pattern,'"%%string%%$2$4');

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[Supra]

Giving a star because it works, but isn't there any way to do in a single shot? Seems like there should be.

 

[tsuji]

This will do, but, maybe you need something to assure prefix %%string%%?
[tt]
var pattern=/%%number%%([0-9])%%%end%%%/g;
var result = data.replace(pattern,'$1');[/tt]