regex - How to remove Bullets from the text using javascript regular expression - Stack Overflow

I am just trying to remove bullets from the text. For example when i am copying bulleted text list from MS Word to any textbox it is showing along with bullet. Can somebody tell me how to remove any type of bullet and replaces it with "".
I have found this code from different sources, But they are not working for me.

 var x="  1.     15-20 years  ";
 x.replace('•\t.+', '');
 alert(x); // i want out put as 15-20 years

Thank you. :-)

I am just trying to remove bullets from the text. For example when i am copying bulleted text list from MS Word to any textbox it is showing along with bullet. Can somebody tell me how to remove any type of bullet and replaces it with "".
I have found this code from different sources, But they are not working for me.

 var x="  1.     15-20 years  ";
 x.replace('•\t.+', '');
 alert(x); // i want out put as 15-20 years

Thank you. :-)

• javascript
• regex

Share Improve this question Follow asked Jun 24, 2011 at 14:21 ReddyReddy 1,38533 gold badges2323 silver badges4545 bronze badges 2

• And what is the actual output? Your x does not even contain a bullet. – Leif Commented Jun 24, 2011 at 14:25
• 1 you want to remove just the "•" character? or the "1." stuff – Pablo Fernandez Commented Jun 24, 2011 at 14:25

Add a ment  | 

5 Answers 5

Sorted by: Reset to default 2

Try this statement instead...

x.replace(/[•\t.+]/g, '');

I think this fits your needs. http://jsfiddle/ksSG8/

 var x="  1.     15-20 years  ";
 x = x.replace(/\s\d\.\s*/, '');
 alert(x);

One part that is missing from many answers and your code is:

x = x.replace(...);

x never receives the value returned from the replace() function if you do not assign it back to x.

Do you see any • in x? No, so you can't replace it. To achieve what you want, use:

x.replace(/^\s*[0-9]+\.\s*/, '');

What the regex does is basically removing any [number]., along with any whitespace before and after it, so what is left is the text you need.

x= x.replace(/^\s*\d+\.\s*/, ''); // strings are immutable

This solution finds both bulleted and numbered items at the beginning of the line of text, then removes them.

var x="  1.     15-20 years  ";
x.replace(/^\s*(?:[••••]|\d+)\.\t/, '');
alert(x); // i want out put as 15-20 years

I think you are trying to replace a substring, instead of replacing with a regular expression.