How to replace multi-lines text in Google Docs by a string with google script

user_10642726 0
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I'm having trouble, replacing multi-lines text in a Google Doc, using App Script.
I've took the time to search and test similar questions I've learn a lot but I can't go through.

I have several blocs of text like below in my google Doc. I'm using tag labels to find what text bloc needs to be replaced. I replace the text block from "||TAG_LABEL" to "||"

||TAG_LABEL
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.||


From what I've learned I have to pass a string to replaceText.
I've checked the console and textToReplace is a string but the text is not replaced

  function regexTestFunction(){

  const document = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
  const documentBody = document.getBody();

  const keyWord = "TAG_LABEL";
  const textToReplace = "\\|{2} (.*?)" + keyWord + "[\\s\\S]*?\\|{2}";

  const deleteText = documentBody.replaceText(textToReplace,"");

}

Thank you for your help

google-apps-script google-docs multiline regex
3 Answers

For my solution, I adjusted the regex you used and came up with:

function regexTestFunction(){
  const document = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
  const documentBody = document.getBody();
  const keyWord = "TAG_LABEL";
  var replace = `\\|{2}[^\\|]*${keyWord}[^\\|]*\\|{2}`;
  var re = new RegExp(replace, "g");
  documentBody.setText(documentBody.getText().replace(re,""));
}

What this does is it replaces the text within the "||TAG_LABEL" and "||". I tested the script on your setup with modifications: enter image description here

After applying the script, I got: enter image description here

However, I noticed that when a single pipe (|) is present in between the tags, the script does not work. Hence, you can use this script if you are not expecting any single pipes in between the tags.

user_187037120

Set all lines to one line

function setTextToOneSentence() {
  let d = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
  let b = d.getBody();
  b.setText("This is one sentence.")
}
user_72150910

From your showing sample value as follows,

    ||TAG_LABEL
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
    Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.||

it seems that the value you want to replace has multiple paragraphs. In this case, it seems that replaceText cannot be directly used. So, in this case, how about the following sample script?

Sample script:

In this sample script, Google Docs API is used. So, please enable Google Docs API at Advanced Google services.

function regexTestFunction() {
  const document = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
  const documentBody = document.getBody();
  const keyWord = "TAG_LABEL";
  const textToReplace = "\\|{2}.*?" + keyWord + "[\\s\\S]*?\\|{2}";
  const r = new RegExp(textToReplace, "g");
  const matches = documentBody.getText().match(r);
  if (!matches || matches.length == 0) return;
  const requests = matches.map(text => ({ replaceAllText: { containsText: { matchCase: false, text }, replaceText: "" } }));
  Docs.Documents.batchUpdate({ requests }, document.getId());
}

  • When you run this script, your sample value is replaced with "" which is empty.

  • In this sample script, the following flow is used.

    1. Retrieve all texts from Document.
    2. Retrieve values using the regex of textToReplace from the texts.
    3. Replace the matched texts using Google Docs API.

Note:

  • I'm not sure about your actual Document. So when the above sample script was not useful, can you provide the sample Document? By this, I would like to confirm it.

References:

user_71086530
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