ph_replaceallregex PowerHome formula function
Description
Performs a regular expression search and replace on all occurences within a string of data.
Syntax
ph_replaceallregex ( pattern, replace, data, flags )
Argument Description
pattern String. A regular expression search pattern.
replace String. A regular expression replacement pattern.
data String. The string in which to perform the search and replace.
flags Integer. Flags that control how the search is performed. Add individual flag values together. Add 1 to cause the search to match case. Add 2 to cause the search to ignore cr/lf's within the data.
Return value
String. Returns the data string with the appropriate replacements performed.
Usage
Use this function for powerful text search and replace capabilities. The regular expression special characters supported are:

. Matches any character.
\( This marks the start of a region for tagging a match.
\) This marks the end of a tagged region.
\n Where n is 1 through 9 refers to the first through ninth tagged region when replacing. For example, if the search string was Fred\([1-9]\)XXX and the replace string was Sam\1YYY, when applied to Fred2XXX this would generate Sam2YYY.
\< This matches the start of a word.
\> This matches the end of a word.
\x This allows you to use a character x that would otherwise have a special meaning. For example, \[ would be interpreted as [ and not as the start of a character set.
[...] This indicates a set of characters, for example, [abc] means any of the characters a, b or c. You can also use ranges, for example [a-z] for any lower case character.
[^...] The complement of the characters in the set. For example, [^A-Za-z] means any character except an alphabetic character.
^ This matches the start of a line (unless used inside a set, see above).
$ This matches the end of a line.
* This matches 0 or more times. For example, Sa*m matches Sm, Sam, Saam, Saaam and so on.
+ This matches 1 or more times. For example, Sa+m matches Sam, Saam, Saaam and so on.

An important note on this function is that it is a "greedy" regular expression search. When using the * and + special characters this function will not stop at the first match but will instead go to the last match.

This function will also not perform a regular expression search that spans multiple lines. If the data to search contains carraige returns or line feeds, the entire matching search data for the regular expression must exist within a single line. If your regular expression must span across a line, then add 2 to the flags to have CR's and LF's temporarily converted. CR will be converted to ASCII 128 and LF will be converted to ASCII 129. If you convert CF/LF then you can include them in your search with PowerHome escape characters ~128 and ~129 respectively.

You may perform multiple search and replaces by separating your search and replace patterns with the PowerHome escape character ~255. If you have more searches than replaces then the last replace pattern will be used for the remaining searches.

You may also perform multiple searches within a single search pattern section by separating your searchs using the PowerHome escape character ~254. If you do multiple searches, then replacement will only be performed on the last search within a search pattern section.