regexmarkdowntextile

Regexp that convert markdown tables to textile ones


I'd like to convert markdown tables in textile one.

Markdown tables follow this pattern:

| column | column |
|--------|--------|
|        |        |

While textile this one:

|_.column |_.column |
|         |         |

Now I wrote the following expression:

text.gsub(/\|[-|]+/, '')

That remove the |--------| bars. I'd like also to add the _. before every column title, in order to make them bold.

Do you have any idea for obtaining this result?


Solution

  • I don't know ruby at all, hence can't be sure of anything about its own syntaxic aspects. So here is a Javascript proposed solution, hopefully it's known widely enough to be easily transposed:

    function markdown2textileTables(source) {
      var lines = source.split('\n');
      lines.forEach(function(line, index, lines) {
        if (!!line.match(/^\|(?:[-]+\|)+$/)) {
          var prevLineCols = lines[index - 1].split('|');
          prevLineCols = prevLineCols.map(function(col) {
            return !!col ? '_.' + col.trim() : col;
          });
          lines[index - 1] = prevLineCols.join('|');
          lines.splice(index, 1);
        }
      });
      return lines.join('\n');
    }
    

    Working example here.

    Note that I didn't take care of title columns length when changing from | column | to |_.column|, because I don't know if it matters or not.
    If yes, the above code would need to be improved at the return !!col ? '_.' + col.trim() : col; statement, depending on current col.length and either adding spaces or cutting title.