CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptregex
user3482211
user3482211

Reputation: 466

Regexp replace all exact matching words/characters in string

I need to replace all matching words or special characters in a string, but cant figure out a way to do so.

For example i have a string: "This - is a great victory"

I need to replace all - with + signs. Or great with unpleasant - user selects a word to be replaced and gives replacement for it. 

"\\b"+originalTex+"\\b"

was working fie until i realised that \b does work only with word characters.

So the question is: what is replacement for \b would let me replace any matching word that is enclosed by whitespaces?

EDIT: I can not remove word boundaries as it would result inexact match. For example: you are creator of your world, while change you, your also would be changed. as it contains "you"

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2332

Answers (2)

Wiktor Stribiżew
Wiktor Stribiżew

Reputation: 627101

You need to use the following code:

var s  = "you are creator of your world";
var search = "you";
var torepl = "we";
var rx = new RegExp("(^|\\s)" + search.replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&') + "(?!\\S)", "gi");
var res = s.replace(rx, "$1" + torepl);
console.log(res);

The (^|\\s) will match and capture into Group 1 start of string or a whitespace. The search.replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&') will escape special chars (if any) inside the search word. The (?!\\S) lookahead will require a whitespace or end of string right after the search word.

The $1 backreference inserts the contents of Group 1 back into the string during replacement (no need to use any lookbehinds here).

Upvotes: 2

mplungjan
mplungjan

Reputation: 178328

How about two replaces

var txt = "This - is a great, great - and great victory"
var originalTex1 = "great",originalTex2 = "-",
re1 = new RegExp("\\b"+originalTex1+"\\b","g"), 
re2 = new RegExp("\\s"+originalTex2+"\\s","g") 

console.log(txt.replace(re1,"super").replace(re2," + "))

Upvotes: 1

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