How to create a string "replace all" function?

Question

Every article or question I've seen pretty much says, just use:

str.replace(/yourstring/g, 'whatever');

But I want to use a variable in place of "yourstring". Then people say, just use new RegExp(yourvar, 'g'). The problem with that is that yourvar may contain special characters, and I don't want it to be treated like a regex.

So how do we do this properly?

Example input:

'a.b.'.replaceAll('.','x')

Desired output:

'axbx'

You want to not treat regex like regex? Can you define the types of input you'd like to provide? Will you want regex-functionality, or is it just a string of literal characters, "ABc34*\d/4h" you want to work with/replace? — David Thomas
– David Thomas, Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 21:53
@DavidThomas: Any input. All I want is a simple function that replaces all instances of "x" with "y", not just the first one, as string.replace does. — mpen
– mpen, Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 21:59

Marshall · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-09 22:21:29Z

10

You can split and join.

var str = "this is a string this is a string this is a string";

str = str.split('this').join('that');

str; // "that is a string that is a string that is a string";

answered Mar 9, 2012 at 22:21

Marshall

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2 Comments

mpen Over a year ago

This solution seems to be significantly faster, so you get the check. Wouldn't have thought of doing this; thanks.

nopyl Nov 17 at 15:07

You made my day, thanks!

Felipe · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-17 18:14:46Z

3

From http://cwestblog.com/2011/07/25/javascript-string-prototype-replaceall/

String.prototype.replaceAll = function(target, replacement) {
  return this.split(target).join(replacement);
};

answered Feb 17, 2014 at 18:14

Felipe

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Comments

sazh · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-09 21:57:19Z

1

you can escape your yourvar variable using the following method:

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

answered Mar 9, 2012 at 21:57

sazh

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1 Comment

mpen Over a year ago

I think you went a little excessive on the backslashes. When inside a character set, you don't need to escape much. Nevertheless, this is a viable solution. +1

Shawn Allen · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-09 22:09:27Z

1

XRegExp provides a function for escaping regular expression characters in strings:

var input = "$yourstring!";
var pattern = new RegExp(XRegExp.escape(input), "g");
console.log("This is $yourstring!".replace(pattern, "whatever"));
// logs "This is whatever"

answered Mar 9, 2012 at 22:09

Shawn Allen

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1 Comment

mpen Over a year ago

I don't really want the whole library, so I dug through the source: nativ.replace.call(str, /[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, "\\$&"); Library does look neat though.

mpen · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-17 20:52:49Z

1

Solution 1

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

String.prototype.replaceAll = function(search, replace) {
    return this.replace(new RegExp(RegExp.escape(search),'g'), replace);
};

Solution 2

'a.b.c.'.split('.').join('x');

jsPerf Test

answered Aug 17, 2015 at 20:52

mpen

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