hiliting all instances of a string in a field

[Trevor DeVore]

On Mar 3, 2004, at 10:59 AM, Dar Scott wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, March 3, 2004, at 10:21 AM, Trevor DeVore wrote:
>
>> Has anyone written a function that will find all instances of a 
>> string in the htmlText of a field EXCEPT if it appears in a tag such 
>> as <a></a>?  I need to hilite all instances of the string in the 
>> field.  I figure I'm either missing a really obvious function already 
>> in Rev that will do it or I need a fancy regular expression.
>
> I assume you want the character offset.
>
> One approach would be to use a loop and a matchChunk.  The match chunk 
> would find the start of the match and the start of the rest.  This is 
> applied to rest until there is no rest (so to speak).  Collect the 
> offsets or process them as you find them.  One problem is that this 
> might run afoul of bug 16.  In that case, limit yourself to a maximum 
> number of elements to be ignored between each instance.
>
> If you just want to count them or something, then use replaceText() to 
> remove the <a></a> and then count the string instances.

I think matchChunk is the way to go.  I just need to figure out the 
regular expression for it and regular expressions aren't my strong 
suit.  I think the regular expression would have to find the string and 
then look behind for a "<a" with no "</a>" between it and the string.  
Does this sound right?  Anyone know how to write that?

-- 
Trevor DeVore
Blue Mango Multimedia
trevor at mangomultimedia.com