Replacing text using jquery

Question

I have the following:

var newValue = $('.TwitterSpot').text().replace('#', 'Blah Blah');

$('.TwitterSpot').text(newValue);

My assumption is that it will get all characters or pieces of text that have "#" replace it with Blah Blah.

It is not working? What am I missing?

The end result I want is to get #tag and replace it with a link to a link to twitter.com/#!/search/%23tag.

What type of element has the .TwitterSpot class?

pete
– pete

2012-02-03 15:20:53 +00:00
Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 15:20 — pete
– pete, Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 15:20
jsfiddle.net/2xHnt -- Works fine for me.

Explosion Pills
– Explosion Pills

2012-02-03 15:21:13 +00:00
Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 15:21 — Explosion Pills
– Explosion Pills, Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 15:21
Are you wanting to do this server side or client side?

thecoshman
– thecoshman

2012-02-03 15:21:33 +00:00
Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 15:21 — thecoshman
– thecoshman, Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 15:21

jAndy · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-03 15:22:21Z

2

I'd suggest to do it like

$('.TwitterSpot').text(function(_, text) {
    return text.replace(/#/g, 'Blah Blah');
});

.text() like many other getter/setter jQuery functions offers a callback which gets passed in the current value. By returning a new value you can update that string.

Your mistake was not using a regular expression for the .replace() function. By doing that you can set the global flag g, which makes sure every occurence is matched.

answered Feb 3, 2012 at 15:22

jAndy

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4 Comments

user400654 Over a year ago

This needs to also grab the text value of the tag so that it can be added to the url.

Anicho Over a year ago

Is there a way of not losing formatting for other elements within .TwitterSpot div?

jAndy Over a year ago

@Anicho: there are more elements contained by that div? Uhh that would get a little more tricky then. We would need to get the .contents() from the element and find the TextNode to modify.

Anicho Over a year ago

No issue you got me going in the right direction /#/g worked like a charm. I'll target the element directly within .TwitterSpot instead.

T. Stone · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-03 15:20:57Z

2

.replace takes a regular expression. To replace all you have to use the global ("g") flag.

.replace(/#/g, 'Blah Blah')

answered Feb 3, 2012 at 15:20

T. Stone

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4 Comments

pete Over a year ago

.replace also takes strings. See the MDN: developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/…

user400654 Over a year ago

This needs to also grab the text value of the tag so that it can be added to the url

Anicho Over a year ago

Is there a way of not losing formatting for other elements within .TwitterSpot div?

T. Stone Over a year ago

@pete the type may be string, but it's understood as a regular expression

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