Replaces a substring of this object with the given text. If the characters being replaced have metadata, the new characters that replace them should be given the same metadata.

Subclasses must ensure that if the text between start and limit is equal to the replacement text, that replace has no effect. That is, any metadata should be unaffected. In addition, subclasses are encouraged to check for initial and trailing identical characters, and make a smaller replacement if possible. This will preserve as much metadata as possible.

Parameters:

	start	the beginning index, inclusive; 0 <= start <= limit.
	limit	the ending index, exclusive; start <= limit <= length().
	text	the text to replace characters start to limit - 1 ICU 2.0

Implemented in UnicodeString, ReplaceableGlue, and TestReplaceable.

Referenced by Transliterator::_transliterate(), Transliterator::filteredTransliterate(), UnicodeNameTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), UnescapeTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), TitlecaseTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), RemoveTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), NormalizationTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), NameUnicodeTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), EscapeTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), CaseMapTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), BreakTransliterator::handleTransliterate(), StringReplacer::replace(), and StringMatcher::replace().