Using regular expressions (regex) to replace selected text in jQuery / JavaScript

Question

In the example below, the text is selected using jQuery. How can we isolate the currency by getting rid of the other data?

This attempt at using JavaScript's replace did not work:

var symbol = $("div.price > h5 > div.num").text().replace(/[\d.]*/, "");

This is the example HTML; the jQuery selector is working:

<div class="price">
  <h5 class="biguns">
    <div class="num">
      €12.28
    </div>
    Lowest Price Per Night
  </h5>
</div>

mck89 · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-08 13:01:19Z

25

The dot must be escaped othwerwise it will match every character and you must set the global modifier:

var symbol = $("div.price > h5 > div.num").text().replace(/[\d\.]+/g, "");

answered Oct 8, 2010 at 13:01

mck89

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2 Comments

Downvoted for the unnecessarily rude commentary. In this case, .replace() is a Javascript method developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/… that shouldn't be confused with the jQuery methods api.jquery.com/replaceAll and api.jquery.com/replaceWith

Ruel · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-08 13:15:58Z

3

var symbol = $("div.price > h5 > div.num").text().replace(/\d+\.?\d+/, "");

answered Oct 8, 2010 at 13:05

Ruel

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Unfortunately this doesn't match 12 without any decimal places. Can't always assume you'll have a consistent input.

Valentin Flachsel · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-08 13:09:06Z

0

If the currency is always the first character and it's one character long, you could easily get it with

var symbol = $(".num").text().substr(0,1);

answered Oct 8, 2010 at 13:09

Valentin Flachsel

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