jQuery: Find array items in text string

Question

How can I find array items in a text string?

I don't know the array and I don't know the text. But when an array item is contained in the text then party!

var arrayString = 'apple | ape | soap',
    text = "This a nice apple tree.";

var array = arrayString.split(" | ");

var matchedArrayItem = "..."; // please help on this

if(matchedArrayItem) {
    $("body").append('The text contains the array item "'+ matchedArrayItem +'".');
}

Test: http://jsfiddle.net/9RxvM/

regex should match something like /\b(apple|ape|tree)\b/ - you do not need jQuery here at all — mplungjan
– mplungjan, Commented Jan 12, 2014 at 14:10

Samleo · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-12 14:10:55Z

1

Use JavaScript search(str).

var matchedArrayItem = "";
for(var i=0;i<array.length;i++){
    if(text.search(array[i])!=-1){
         matchedArrayItem = array[i];
         break;
    }
}

if(matchedArrayItem!="") {
    $("body").append('The text contains the array item "'+ matchedArrayItem +'".');
}

Note that this will get the first matched item in the array. To check if there is a matched item, just check if matchedArrayItem!="";

answered Jan 12, 2014 at 14:10

Samleo

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1 Comment

Martin Over a year ago

How could I run this for multiple matches and replace the text output and array string? jsfiddle.net/9RxvM/4

TiiJ7 · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-12 14:20:17Z

1

One way with Regex:

var arrayString = 'apple|ape|soap',
  text = "This a nice apple tree.";

var matchedArrayItem = text.match(new RegExp("\\b(" + arrayString + ")\\b"));

if(matchedArrayItem) {
    $("body").append('The text contains the array item "'+ matchedArrayItem[0] +'".');
}

$("body").append("<br><br>" + arrayString + "<br>" + text);

Note: I removed the spaces from the array string to make it the correct format

Note2: match() returns an array of matches, so I take the first ([0]) result.

http://jsfiddle.net/9RxvM/2/

answered Jan 12, 2014 at 14:20

TiiJ7

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