jQuery detect the length of a string

Question

I'm trying to highlight a searched terms which is working well. The problem is that I would like to avoid having 1 or 2 character words or "the" and 'and.'

if I use

var term = $('#q').val().split(/\s+/);
     if(term.length < 3){
    $('p').highlight(term);
     }

it will take the input value as a whole string, so it has more then 3 letters.

so I guess I need to use

if(term:contains('and')){}

but the trick is how will I un-highlight that?

demo

the higlihgt function is pulled from raw.github.com/bartaz/sandbox.js/master/jquery.highlight.js — SamotnyPocitac
– SamotnyPocitac, Commented Feb 27, 2014 at 21:34

G.Mendes · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-28 18:11:49Z

1

You checked the length of the string array and not actually the length of each string, this should work:

 $(document).ready(function() {

    var term = $('#q').val().split(/\s+/);
    for(var i=0;i<term.length;i++)
    { 
       if(term[i].length > 3)
        $('p').highlight(term[i]);      
    }          
 });

FIDDLE http://jsfiddle.net/eayan/16/

UPDATE: To allow terms set up one array of allowed words i.e:

var allowed = ["xp","try"];

change the if to:

if(term[i].length > 3 || $.inArray(term[i],allowed) >= 0)

for case insensitive search you gotta make some tunes

Fiddle - allowed words

edited Feb 28, 2014 at 18:11

answered Feb 27, 2014 at 21:40

G.Mendes

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3 Comments

SamotnyPocitac Over a year ago

is there a way to exclude some words that I need to highlight but have less letters. ie XP?

SamotnyPocitac Over a year ago

I see some problem because "by" is also highlighted and it shouldn't be because is less then 3 letters

G.Mendes Over a year ago

sorry, the result of inArray must be >= so means it was found

Bic · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-27 22:56:08Z

1

You can replace remove the words you don't want:

var term = $("#q").val();

var unwantedWords = ['the', 'and', 'this', 'that', 'a', 'an'];

// remove unwanted words 
for (var i = 0; i < unwantedWords.length; i++) {
    term = term.replace(new RegExp("\\s+" + unwantedWords[i]), "");
}

term = term.split(/\s+/);

$('p').highlight(term);

Updated Fiddle

edited Feb 27, 2014 at 22:56

answered Feb 27, 2014 at 21:35

Bic

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5 Comments

SamotnyPocitac Over a year ago

excelent, thanks a lot. I wish if I could give two good answers!

SamotnyPocitac Over a year ago

one more question though. How would I do opposite. Now I hide the words smaller then 3 letters but if I need some words that have only 2 letters?

Bic Over a year ago

@SamotnyPocitac See my updated solution. You can create an array of unwanted words, and remove each of them. This makes is a bit more extensible; if you uncover additional words you don't want, you can just add them to the array. It also means that it isn't dependent on the length of the word, but on the word itself (e.g. article adjetives, etc.);

SamotnyPocitac Over a year ago

that doesn't seem to work, you can even see in your demo that and is highlighted

Bic Over a year ago

@SamotnyPocitac There was a syntax error. JSHint ftw. Updated

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