Question

quick question, I have some markdown HTML content that I’d like to convert from double asterisks to bold.

the error i’m getting is: `Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method ‘replace’ of null ‘

here’s the jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/fz5ZT/9/

here’s the HTML:

<div class="comments">comment 1** is good**</div>
<div class="comments">comment 2**is bad**</div>

here’s the JS:

function markdown(markdownable){

  var boldMatch = markdownable.match(/\*\*[A-Za-z0-9]+\*\*/gim), 
  boldReplace = boldMatch.replace(/\*\*[A-z0-9]+\*\*/gim, '<span style="font-  weight:bold;color:blue;">'+boldMatch+'</span>'),                   
  markdownable = markdownable.replace(boldMatch, boldReplace),    
  markdownable = markdownable.replace(/\*\*/gi, "");

  return markdownable;
}

$('.comments').each(function(){  
   var markdownable=$(this).html(), comments=markdown(markdownable);
});

if you might be able to help i’d greatly appreciate it,

thanks,
tim

update thanks all! please see this for a working demo: http://jsfiddle.net/fz5ZT/30/

Answer 1

markdownable = markdownable.replace( /\*\*(.+?)\*\*/gm, '<strong>$1</strong>' );

However, instead of performing a half-hearted, well-intentioned, doomed-to-fail attempt at reinventing the wheel, why not just use an existing JavaScript Markdown library?

Edit: Here’s a more robust regex that (like Markdown) requires there to be no whitespace right after the “open” or before the “close”:

var bold = /\*\*(\S(.*?\S)?)\*\*/gm;
markdownable = markdownable.replace( bold, '<strong>$1</strong>' );