Using Java Script or jquery regex to verify if a string contains another string

Question

I am building a simple search where query string can have wild cards '*'. Search terms can be like following:

animal
ani*
*mal
an*al

all above should return true if the word is 'animal'.

how this can be done in JS / jquery?

will appreciate for help. rnv

I guess you are looking for \w*, else .* will match even any animal with an*al, and you say you need to match 1 word. The problem here is with Unicode letters. Do you need to also support Unicode? — Wiktor Stribiżew
– Wiktor Stribiżew, Commented Jul 31, 2015 at 8:49
You're asking about regular expressions, but I think the heart of your question is really about Approximate string matching. Is that true? — Jon Surrell
– Jon Surrell, Commented Jul 31, 2015 at 8:56
Yes. but can you give me hint how to use approximate string matching using jquery or js? — user1749707
– user1749707, Commented Jul 31, 2015 at 11:44

ANVerona · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-31 10:29:36Z

2

The match on a string is simple:

var mystring = "This is my string";
var myregex = /*some regex*/
var results = mystring.match(myregex); // you can also write the regex directly as the argument of the match method, without using any variable.

So in your case you could have:

var mystring = "animal";
var myregex = new RegExp(inputQuery.replace(/\*/g, '.*'), 'gi'); // gi stands for 'global' and 'ignorecase' when applying the regex
var results = mystring.match(myregex);

Beware that .* matches zero or more (comes from the * whildcard) character, ANY character (comes from the .)
If you want to match zero or more letter, number or underscoreuse \w*, if you want to match one or more, use \w+, and if you want to match a specific number of letters, use \w{x} (\w{3} matches exactly 3 letters).

edited Jul 31, 2015 at 10:29

answered Jul 31, 2015 at 9:00

ANVerona

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3 Comments

user1749707 Over a year ago

replace('', '.') replaces only one instance of ''. is there a way to replace all instances? query can be 'aim*l'

ANVerona Over a year ago

@user1749707 string.replace(searchvalue,newvalue) actually does replace ALL instances of the searchvalue with newvalue. Here's the docs.

ANVerona Over a year ago

@user1749707 I updated the answer. I forgot to mention that you should use a regex with the global flag set, in order to replace ALL occurrences of a string, sorry :)

aelor · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-31 09:02:07Z

1

var str = "anim*";
var replaced = str.replace("*", ".*");
var regex = new RegExp(replaced);
var result = regex.test("animal");
console.log(result);

change the str variable to get the result as true or false;

answered Jul 31, 2015 at 9:02

aelor

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1 Comment

user1749707 Over a year ago

Thanks works fine but if the query string contains multiple '' then it failes. e.g. str='anm*l'.

Mahesh Jasti · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-31 09:16:07Z

0

Implemented version - https://jsfiddle.net/dpoqnacv/1/

var regexString = '^'+ $('#searchbox').val().replace("*",".*") + '$';

    if(new RegExp(regexString).test('animal'))
          $('#resultdiv').html('Matching...');
    else
        $('#resultdiv').html('Not Matching...');

answered Jul 31, 2015 at 9:16

Mahesh Jasti

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1 Comment

Mahesh Jasti Over a year ago

you may need to do a global replace of * if you are going to have multiple wildcards in the search.

Vadim Caen · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-31 09:23:24Z

0

You can just transform your wildcard into a RegExp and perform your search. Here is a simple example.

var search = document.getElementById("search");
var result = document.getElementById("result");


result.style.color = "red";

function fsearch() {
    var str=search.value;
    str = str.replace("*", ".*") //Transform your wildcard into a RegExp
    result.innerHTML = "animal".match(new RegExp(str));
}

<label for="search">Search : <input name="search" id="search" type="text"/></label>
<input id="ok" type="button" value="ok" onclick="fsearch()"/>
Result : <div id="result"></div>

answered Jul 31, 2015 at 9:23

Vadim Caen

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Comments

PRDeving · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-31 09:27:55Z

0

not bad answers but i think its easier with .test();

var str = "my dog is an animal";

/dog*anim*/.test(str); //returns true
/d*mal/.test(str); //returns true

etc

give it a try

answered Jul 31, 2015 at 9:27

PRDeving

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