Text Processing with JavaScript

Recipe 35

Taking Away the Special Meaning of Replacement Patterns

Task

Suppose your task is to add the pricing for different services to a website’s blog. More specifically, you need to add the fee for tire replacement at a car service center. In your first attempt, you come up with a solution like this:

part_2/neutralizing_replacement/nrp_ex1.js

const str = "In our shops, tire change takes about 15 minutes.";
const re = /\b(tire change)\b/;

str.replace(re, "$1 (which cost $10 for each tire)");
// → "In our shops, tire change (which cost tire change0 for each tire)
// takes about 15 minutes."

This regex attempts to find the phrase “tire change” in a string and add the cost in parentheses. It uses a special replacement ...