Q771 How can I simply replace a character pair like \n with something like a ^?

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Q771 How can I simply replace a character pair like \n with something like a ^?

When replacing text within a string with another item of text you can use the following robust function:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
function replace(string,text,by) {
// Replaces text with by in string
    var strLength = string.length, txtLength = text.length;
    if ((strLength == 0) || (txtLength == 0)) return string;

    var i = string.indexOf(text);
    if ((!i) && (text != string.substring(0,txtLength))) return string;
    if (i == -1) return string;

    var newstr = string.substring(0,i) + by;

    if (i+txtLength < strLength)
        newstr += replace(string.substring(i+txtLength,strLength),text,by);

    return newstr;
}
//--></SCRIPT>

To replace 'X' with 'Y' use:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
var mytext = 'xXyY';

var myresult = replace(mytext,'X','Y');
//--></SCRIPT>

For an explanation of the replace() function see the article How long is a piece of string?.

To replace two characters, for example to change \n to ^ use:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
mytext = 'this is a line \nthis is another\n';

var myresult = replace(mytext,'\n','^');
//--><SCRIPT>

To replace text within a form field use:

<FORM NAME="myForm">
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="myText" VALUE="ab aa bb a b ba aabababb">
<INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Replace" onClick="this.form.myText.value=replace(this.form.myText.value,'ab','xy')">
</FORM>

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