How to create regex with whitespace for filtering datatable

Question

I've a few predefined filter options on my page to filter my datatable. When clicking one, it gets added to the filter of the specific column. But I've a big problem with whitespaces... for example I've those options:

"old & good", "cheap & nice", "expensive"

All clicked options are stored in an array. For filtering I do

var term = array.join('|'); //--> term = "old & good|cheap & nice|expensive"
dataTable.fnFilter(term, column, true, true);

It works fine if there are no strings with whitespaces and "&" or only one. a solo "cheap & nice" is working, but "cheap & nice|expensive" doesn't... also "expensive|what|ever" works when there are no whitespaces.

How can I get the filter work?

--------edit----------

some further explanation:

My code imports data from (user-defined) csv and generates for the first column some buttons, one for every unique entry in this column. The user can click on the buttons to filter the table, only the clicked entrys should be displayed. The button gets the entry as value, like in this example.

<input type="button" value="cheap & nice" onclick="myFilterFunction(this)"/>

To know wich buttons have been clicked, their value gets stored in a normal array. My callback function for the click looks into this array, joins the names to one regexp and gives this string to the fnFilter(), like posted above.

This works fine as long as there is no entry with whitespaces in it. But i can't remove the whitespaces, because then the filter can't find the entry wich really has whitespaces in it.

you'll need to show more code. what's joining what and where, where's the server-side code that query's db...there's lots of places where things can go wrong — gwillie
– gwillie, Commented Feb 10, 2014 at 13:14
i added some more explanation. there is no server-side code and no db. — PanChan
– PanChan, Commented Feb 11, 2014 at 8:22

PanChan · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-11 11:38:11Z

3

Finally, after a lot of hours, I found a solution for my problem.

var array = ["old & good","cheap & nice","expensive"];
var regexp = array.join('|').replace("&", "\\&").replace(/\s/g, "\\s");
--> "old\s\&\sgood|cheap\s&\snice|expensive"

Giving this term to the fnFilter() works!

But it would be nice to have a function, wich can convert all special characters to the corresponding regexp, in the style of @BoomyJee suggestion. If there is such a function, please let me know.

answered Feb 11, 2014 at 11:38

PanChan

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BoomyJee · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-11 16:02:02Z

1

You should quote special characters.

If this is constant string just use slash 'old /& good'

If this is user input you should use quote function. There is no such function by default in JS, but you can use http://phpjs.org/functions/preg_quote/

    function preg_quote (str, delimiter) {
      return (str + '').replace(new RegExp('[\&.\\\\+*?\\[\\^\\]$(){}=!<>|:\\' + (delimiter || '') + '-]', 'g'), '\\$&');
    }

So if you have user input like:

    var input = ["old & good","cheap & nice","expensive"];
    var regexp_string = input.map(function(val){ return preg_quote(val,"/") }).join("|");

edited Feb 11, 2014 at 16:02

answered Feb 11, 2014 at 8:29

BoomyJee

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4 Comments

PanChan Over a year ago

uhm.. i don't really understand your answer. i'm not so familiar with regexp. I implemented your suggestion but it still doesn't work. after joining the array the "regexp_string" still looks like "old & good|cheap & nice|expensive" and has no "/" in it. I also looked into the oSettings.aoPreSearchCols[i].sSearch, the term has no slashes.

BoomyJee Over a year ago

fixed my function in answer

PanChan Over a year ago

thanks! it would be very nice if you could also include in your function the converting of whitespaces. I tried to implement \s in some combinations, but it doesn't work. I really don't understand the single signs in the new RegExp() functions :(

BoomyJee Over a year ago

whitespace is not a special character, it should not be escaped, can you make a fiddle with a problem?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:52:17Z

0

You could use something like this to remove whitespace in javascript instead of regex:

s.replace(/\s+/g, ' ');

Or this

var str = "       Hello World!        ";
alert(str.trim());

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:52

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 10, 2014 at 13:13

jolyTimePopCorn

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1 Comment

PanChan Over a year ago

I don't want to remove the whitespaces. I have to search for the exact term with the whitespaces and the "&"!

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