Javascript / Jquery - Variable in Regex

Question

The array replaceThis is user generated so i cant write constant regex rules.
But how can i create the regex rules?
Any ideas for a nice solution?

var replaceThis = new Array();
replaceThis[0] = ':)';
replaceThis[1] = 'XD';
replaceThis[2] = '-.-';
replaceThis[3] = 'hello world';
replaceThis[3] = ' a ';        
replaceThis[3] = ' B ';                

var message = 'text text :) text text -.- and hello world XD and text a btext B text text';
$.each(replaceThis, function(i)
{
    var regex = new RegExp (" ??? ","gi");
    message = message.replace(regex,'<span class="blue">'+????+'</span>');
});

$('body').append(message+'<hr/>');

Playground: http://jsfiddle.net/s7b3r/2/

Thanks in advance!
Jamie

So you need to escape your regex so that new RegExp ("(:))","gi") does not break? — Salman Arshad
– Salman Arshad, Commented Dec 16, 2012 at 9:18

xdazz · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-16 09:20:25Z

4

Check the working DEMO.

You need to escape the special chars for regex.

String.prototype.escapeRegExp = function() {
  return this.replace(/([.*+?^=!:${}()|[\]\/\\])/g, "\\$1");
}

Then use it like:

$.each(replaceThis, function(i, data){
    var regex = new RegExp(data.escapeRegExp(),"gi");
    message = message.replace(regex, '<span class="blue">$&</span>'); 
});

answered Dec 16, 2012 at 9:20

xdazz

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