Simple jQuery / javascript method to escape special characters in string for regexp

Question

I'm performing a regular expression using the match() method on a string that comes from the user and could contain anything, including $^'s etc.. so I need to escape those characters before this happens.

Is there a common function in jQuery to do this, a well known javascript function or am I going to have to do it manually (with the chance I might miss something?)

El Developer · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-31 17:47:50Z

13

Found a function here:

RegExp.escape = function(text) {
    return text.replace(/[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, "\\$&");
}

edited May 31, 2014 at 17:47

El Developer

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answered Mar 15, 2011 at 0:10

John Hunt

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3 Comments

StrubT Over a year ago

as far as I can see, it's the same replacement as in jQuery.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex, however this function is not official and can therefor be removed at any time without further notice

Salman Arshad Over a year ago

Used here as well: github.com/jquery/jquery-ui/blob/master/ui/… (search for escapeRegex)

AVe Over a year ago

How to escape / symbol?

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