Template:Replace/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Replace. It contains usage information, categories, and other content that is not part of the original template page.

Template:Replace invokes function main in Module:Replace using Lua.

Acts as a regex-supporting version of {{#replace:}}.

Some functions of standard regex (Perl compatible) are not supported.

• No flags (g, i, m)
• No alteration (|); see below
• No generalized quantifier ({m,n})
• No word boundaries (\b)

Lua's pattern matching is used for this template; however, the following replacements are made to give some functionality to standard regex:

• *? → -
• \ → %
• $1 → %1 (supported for all numbers 1–9)

Any whitespace in the output will be automatically trimmed and condensed. Any HTML entities (such as ' from {{subst:PAGENAME}}) will be automatically converted to their actual character.

Alteration

If detected, the module can emulate very simple alteration patterns within groups, with the following limitations:

• No supported for nested grouping (e.g. (foo|bar(and|or)baz)
  • Escaped parentheses should work properly inside grouping (e.g. (foo|bar\(or\)baz))
• $ will cause unwanted behaviour inside any groups, even if that group doesn't use alteration
  • This only applies to patterns where at least 1 group has an alteration. If all groups are single captures, this behaviour won't occur.
• The pipe character breaks wikitext. Use {{!}} or ¦ inside patterns

MediaWiki docs

For full information on the difference between Lua's pattern matching and regex, see Lua reference manual § Patterns.

Usage

This template should always be substituted.

{{subst:replace|text to perform on|search pattern|replacement}}

Examples

{{subst:replace|textcapturetext|text(.*)text|$1}} → capture

Expected: capture

{{subst:replace|Abyssal whip detail.png|detail\.png}} → Abyssal whip

Expected: Abyssal whip

{{replace|abcde|(ab¦c¦d)|^$1^}} → ^ab^^c^^d^e

Expected: ^ab^^c^^d^e

{{replace|abcde|(a¦b¦d)|$$1###-}} → $a###-$b###-c$d###-e

Expected: $a###-$b###-c$d###-e

{{replace|abcde|(ab¦a¦b)|!$1!}} → !ab!cde

Expected: !ab!cde