Replace All Occurrences of a String in JavaScript
One thing you may have noticed is that JavaScript's String.replace() method doesn't act like replacement methods in other languages. Take the following for example:
var replaced = 'The MooTools JavaScript library is is great. I have never loved any code as I have MooTools!'.replace('MooTools','MooTools FTW!');
The above code will only replace the first occurrence of "MooTools" -- not every occurrence like PHP's str_replace() would. To replace every occurrence of a string in JavaScript, you must provide the replace() method a regular expression with a global modifier as the first parameter:
var replaced = 'The MooTools JavaScript library is is great. I have never loved any code as I have MooTools!'.replace(/MooTools/g,'MooTools FTW!');
Remember that you must escape special characters within your regular expression. And oh -- how convenient! MooTools provides a method that will do that for you!
Comments
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Share your thoughts without being a jerk! And wrap your code in <code> tags, f00!
I had this issue before, didn’t knew the answer was so simple. Out of frusteration I actually used php.js because I couldn’t figure it out. Thnx man.
FTR, JS’s replace function DOES act like replace functions in other languages, just perhaps not the ones you’re expecting it to.
It doesn’t work like str_replace in PHP, but it is very similar to preg_replace.
As long as developers are aware that .replace is a regular expression replacement method, I think it’s pretty straightforward.
http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_replace.asp
It should also be noted that one can create a regular expression using something like:
var regex = new RegExp(‘MooTools’, ‘g’);
And that regular expression can be used in the replace function (first parameter). Which is helpful if you ever want to use the contents of a variable in your replacement:
http://tommcfarlin.com/2008/03/11/using-local-variables-with-javascripts-replace-function/
Don’t forget to escape!
“.replace is a regular expression replacement method” (@Jay)
I think that’s quite misleading. From what you’ve said one would assume that the replace-method’s first argument is converted to a regular expression implicitly when in fact, if you pass a string, it’s treated as literal text and is not converted to a RegExp object.
Also, just to clarify, /regex/ is the same as RegExp(‘regex’) – which, btw, doesn’t require the new operator.
David, just a question, whats the name of comments system that you had? WDC or something like that. Thx
can it replace the page itself?
i mean, insted of ““, it will write ““,
or insted if “<iframe>”, it will write “” (“<” is “<")
waiting for a response.
thanks!
Could you tell me what is code to create the copy to clipboard button, please?
also have this problem. thanks for your perfect method.
I use replace(/\+/g, ‘ ‘) replace “+” to space