How to search and replace a substring ?

rmam

I'm looking for a way to replace any sub-string present in a QString object that is included in a hard-coded list of strings which include dozens of entries. Right now I'm passing QString::replace a QRegularExpression that covers all matching strings. However, I'm not sure this is an adequate way of doing things.

Does anyone know what's the best way to pull this off?

aha_1980

Hi @rmam,

I have seen implementations that simply nest calls to QString::replace(QString, QString):

QString s = "The quick brown fuchs jumps ueber the lazy hund.";
s.replace("fuchs", "fox").replace("ueber", "over").replace("hund", "dog");

However, this involves multiple string allocations so it might be slower than a regular expression based replace. Or it might be faster. The only thing you can do is benchmark with your original data.

Happy New Year!

JonB

@rmam
What is the replacement string in these cases? E.g. is it "", so you are removing them all, or something else? This will affect possible solutions....

Tavit

Hi @JonB
Above suggested code is fine,but regular expression based replace is good only when the involvement of special symbol replacements.

Thanks and Regards,
Tavit.

JonB

@Tavit
Don't know what your post means. I haven't suggested anything yet: I am asking the OP what his replacement actually is (e.g. is he just removing the search strings completely, or putting something else in?)

Tavit

@JonB
Sorry got overlooked the post. My opinion is what ever he is used the code that is right. In terms of replacing the strings.

QString s = "The quick brown fuchs jumps ueber the lazy hund.";
s.replace("fuchs", "fox").replace("ueber", "over").replace("hund", "dog");

Based on @rmam post he has to replace the search string with another specific string.

JonB

@Tavit

Based on @rmam post he has to replace the search string with another specific string.

If that is indeed the case, then using multiple/chained replace()s as you suggest is not the correct method to do it, and may lead to incorrect replacements. That's why we need to hear back from the OP....

rmam

@JonB the replacement would be a slightly altered version of the original keyword. For instance, consider that the regex tries to match instances of keyword "foo" that occur only after "this.foo." then the goal is to replace them with, for example "this <bar>foo</bar>."

SGaist

Hi,

Is it some sort of template replacement ?

JonB

@rmam
You can't use multiple replace()s if there is any chance that the replacement string could be found by a search string.

Once you start specifying patterns like you are now, you're better off with regular expressions, and you don't have the potential issue of one replacement causing another. So actually your current solution may be good. You can build up the many strings dynamically before passing them as reg exp if that's better to maintain in code, I don't know if Qt has any limits on length of pattern.

Now, of course once @SGaist has spoken it's worth answering him, as he might have a tailored solution :)