CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascript
AbeIsWatching
AbeIsWatching

Reputation: 159

replacing words not letters with javascript

I'm trying to replace some words in a string with .replace(desiredWord,""), to remove those words from that string.
I have a string which is like this "xsmall small medium" and I'm trying to remove "small" from that string in some events, but it sometimes removes small of xsmall also, which is not my intention..
Is there any way to restrict replace method or I should use another method?

I want to replace or remove specific word, not letters.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1478

Answers (3)

Mouser
Mouser

Reputation: 13304

The following should work:

If you pad your desiredWord with the word boundary \b operator it will work without false positives.

const sampleString = "xsmall small medium";

console.log(sampleString.replace(/\bsmall\b/g, "test"));

With variable

document.querySelector("#replace").addEventListener("click", (e) => {
debugger
  const value = document.querySelector("#change").value;
  //escape the operators in the regexp!
  const regex = new RegExp("\\b"+value+"\\b", "g");
  document.querySelector("#text").value = document.querySelector("#text").value.replace(regex, "test");
}, true);
<input readonly id="text" value="xsmall small medium" /><br />
<input id="change"><button id="replace">Replace</button>

Upvotes: 2

Trisma
Trisma

Reputation: 765

You can use a RegEx expression for this. You can use these in the replace method directly. A way to check this is using the next expression: \bsmall

The result of this is as follow : 

string.replace(\bsmall, "")

\b will check if the characters are from 1 and only 1 word

Upvotes: 2

Jeremy Jones
Jeremy Jones

Reputation: 5631

You could exclude letters before explicitly:

const sampleString = "xsmall small medium";
console.log(sampleString.replace(/([^a-z])(?=small)/ig, "$1x");

This regular expression reads, "Not a letter, followed by (but not captured) 'small', replaced with whatever the non-letter was, followed by an x."

or the same thing using the word boundary feature, just be sure not to delete it too:

const sampleString = "xsmall small medium";
console.log(sampleString.replace(/(\b)(?=small)/ig, "$1x");

This one reads, "Any word boundary, followed by 'small' (but without 'small' forming part of the replacement), replaced by the word boundary and then an 'x'.

Upvotes: 1

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