Question

I have the following string in JavaScript

  var mystring = " abcdef(p,q); check(x,y); cef(m,n);"

I would want to do a string replace such that my final string is :

  mystring = " abcdef(p,q); someothercheck\(x,y\); cef(m,n);"

x and y should remain same after the substitution. and the backslashes are necessary since I need to pass them to some other command.

There can be other Parantheses in the string too.

Answer 1

If you don’t have other parenthesis, it should be easy.

mystring = mystring.replace("check(", "someothercheck\\(");
mystring = mystring.replace(")", "\\)");

EDIT This works also in the case of multiple parenthesis (It does not affect the empty ones).
var str=” abcdef; check(x,y); cef();”
patt = /((\w)/g;

// transform (x in \(x
str = str.replace(patt, '\\($1');

patt = /(\w)\)/g

// transform y) in y\);
str = str.replace(patt,  '$1\\)');

// transform check in someothercheck
str = str.replace('check', 'someothercheck');

EDIT Now it converts only the check strings.

function convertCheck(str, check, someOtherCheck) {
   // console.log(str + " contains " + check + "? ");
   // console.log(str.indexOf(check));

   if (str.indexOf(check) === -1) return str;
   var patt1 = /\((\w)/g,
   patt2 = /(\w)\)/g; 

   str = str.replace(patt1, '\\($1');
   str = str.replace(patt2,  '$1\\)');
   str = str.replace(check, someOtherCheck);

   return str;
}

var str = "abcdef(); check(x,y); cef();",
    tokens = str.split(';');
for (var i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++) {
   tokens[i] = convertCheck(tokens[i], "check", "someothercheck");
}
str = tokens.join(";");

alert(str);  // "abcdef(); someothercheck/(x,y/); cef();"