[JS CS3] RegExp Object containing only one backslash (how to escape)

Question

Hi
I'm trying to escape one backslash in my RegExp Object, but I get a Syntax Error:
     myObj = new RegExp ( "\\" );
I tried it phyton Style   myObj = new RegExp ( "\\\\" ); but that's not working right.
Thanks for any hint.
Stefan

Answer 1

Stefan,
First of all, in your sample text you need to escape your backslash as well:
myText = "This is an \\ of search and replace.";
You can see this in these examples:
alert ("a\rb") prints "a" then "b" on a new line; alert ("a\\rb") prints "a\rb".
Another problem is that you use a regex as the replacement object (myWhit), but that should be a string. With these two things corrected, it works fine:
function main()
     var myText = "This is an \\ of search and replace.";
     var myWhat = new RegExp ( "\\\\" );
     var myWhatSearch = new RegExp ( "\\\\" );
     var myWhit = "example";
     alert( myReplaceExample( myText, myWhatSearch, myWhat, myWhit) );
     return true;
That new RegExp ("\\") can't be correct can be seen if you start with a literal regex, in which you would use an escaped backslash:
myText = myText.replace (/\\/, "example")
To use \\ in a new RegExp () construction, you need to place it in a string, and you need to escape both backslashes, so you end up with "\\\\".
Peter