coldfusion Rereplace function - regex

Question

I am using the following ColdFusion REreplace function
<cfset variables.sAddress = #left(trim(REReplace(arguments.address, "[^-0-9a-zA-Z_/-/']", "", "ALL")),50)#/> where arguments.address is coming from the form.
I am using the rereplace function to remove the special characters, which is working fine on other pages, but in this case before using the rereplace function it is first converting the special characters into their html equivalent and then applying the rereplace function.
so if i pass 'test&test' as the arguments.address1, the result i am getting is 'testamptest'.

Answer 1

You may need a function to convert HTML encoded text into un-encoded (change HTML entities back to what they are).
Here's the one I'm usually using:
// function to reverse HTMLEditFormat
function HtmlUnEditFormat( str )
{
var lEntities = "&##xE7;,&##xF4;,&##xE2;,Î,Ç,È,Ó,Ê,&OElig,Â,«,»,À,É,≤,ý,χ,∑,′,ÿ,∼,β,⌈,ñ,ß,„,´,·,–,ς,®,†,⊕,õ,η,⌉,ó,­,>,φ,∠,‏,α,∩,↓,υ,ℑ,³,ρ,é,¹,<,¢,¸,π,⊃,÷,ƒ,¿,ê, ,∅,∀, ,γ,¡,ø,¬,à,ð,ℵ,º,ψ,⊗,δ,ö,°,≅,ª,‹,♣,â,ò,ï,♦,æ,∧,◊,è,¾,&,⊄,ν,“,∈,ç,ˆ,©,á,§,—,ë,κ,∉,⌊,≥,ì,↔,∗,ô,∞,¦,∫,¯,½,¤,≈,λ,⁄,‘,…,œ,£,♥,−,ã,ε,∇,∃,ä,μ,¼, ,≡,•,←,«,‾,∨,€,µ,≠,∪,å,ι,í,⊥,¶,→,»,û,ο,‚,ϑ,∋,∂,”,℘,‰,²,σ,⋅,š,¥,ξ,±,ℜ,þ,〉,ù,√,‍,∴,↑,×, ,θ,⌋,⊂,⊇,ü,’,ζ,™,î,ϖ,‌,〈,˜,ú,¨,∝,ϒ,ω,↵,τ,⊆,›,∏,",‎,♠";
var lEntitiesChars = "ç,ô,â,Î,Ç,È,Ó,Ê,Œ,Â,«,»,À,É,?,ý,?,?,?,Ÿ,?,?,?,ñ,ß,„,´,·,–,?,®,‡,?,õ,?,?,ó,­,>,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,³,?,é,¹,<,¢,¸,?,?,÷,ƒ,¿,ê,?,?,?,?,?,¡,ø,¬,à,ð,?,º,?,?,?,ö,°,?,ª,‹,?,â,ò,ï,?,æ,?,?,è,¾,&,?,?,“,?,ç,ˆ,©,á,§,—,ë,?,?,?,?,ì,?,?,ô,?,¦,?,¯,½,¤,?,?,?,‘,…,œ,£,?,?,ã,?,?,?,ä,?,¼, ,?,•,?,«,?,?,€,µ,?,?,å,?,í,?,¶,?,»,û,?,‚,?,?,?,”,?,‰,²,?,?,š,¥,?,±,?,þ,?,ù,?,?,?,?,×,?,?,?,?,?,ü,’,?,™,î,?,?,?,˜,ú,¨,?,?,?,?,?,?,›,?,"",?,?";
return ReplaceList(arguments.str, lEntities, lEntitiesChars);
}