JavaScript: replace last occurrence of text in a string

You can use String#lastIndexOf to find the last occurrence of the word, and then String#substring and concatenation to build the replacement string.

n = str.lastIndexOf(list[i]);
if (n >= 0 && n + list[i].length >= str.length) {
    str = str.substring(0, n) + "finish";
}

...or along those lines.

Not as elegant as the regex answers above, but easier to follow for the not-as-savvy among us:

function removeLastInstance(badtext, str) {
    var charpos = str.lastIndexOf(badtext);
    if (charpos<0) return str;
    ptone = str.substring(0,charpos);
    pttwo = str.substring(charpos+(badtext.length));
    return (ptone+pttwo);
}

I realize this is likely slower and more wasteful than the regex examples, but I think it might be helpful as an illustration of how string manipulations can be done. (It can also be condensed a bit, but again, I wanted each step to be clear.)

Here's a method that only uses splitting and joining. It's a little more readable so thought it was worth sharing:

    String.prototype.replaceLast = function (what, replacement) {
        var pcs = this.split(what);
        var lastPc = pcs.pop();
        return pcs.join(what) + replacement + lastPc;
    };

A simple one-liner answer without any regex would be:

str = str.substring(0, str.lastIndexOf(list[i])) + 'finish'

A negative lookahead solution:

str.replace(/(one)(?!.*\1)/, 'finish')

An explanation provided by the site regex101.com,

/(one)(?!.*\1)/

1st Capturing Group (one)

• one - matches the characters one literally (case sensitive)

Negative Lookahead (?!.*\1)

Assert that the Regex below does not match

• . matches any character (except for line terminators)
• * matches the previous token between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
• \1 matches the same text as most recently matched by the 1st capturing group

Thought I'd answer here since this came up first in my Google search and there's no answer (outside of Matt's creative answer :)) that generically replaces the last occurrence of a string of characters when the text to replace might not be at the end of the string.

if (!String.prototype.replaceLast) {
    String.prototype.replaceLast = function(find, replace) {
        var index = this.lastIndexOf(find);

        if (index >= 0) {
            return this.substring(0, index) + replace + this.substring(index + find.length);
        }
    
        return this.toString();
    };
}

var str = 'one two, one three, one four, one';

// outputs: one two, one three, one four, finish
console.log(str.replaceLast('one', 'finish'));

// outputs: one two, one three, one four; one
console.log(str.replaceLast(',', ';'));

I did not like any of the answers above and came up with the below

function isString(variable) { 
    return typeof (variable) === 'string'; 
}

function replaceLastOccurrenceInString(input, find, replaceWith) {
    if (!isString(input) || !isString(find) || !isString(replaceWith)) {
        // returns input on invalid arguments
        return input;
    }

    const lastIndex = input.lastIndexOf(find);
    if (lastIndex < 0) {
        return input;
    }

    return input.substr(0, lastIndex) + replaceWith + input.substr(lastIndex + find.length);
}

Usage:

const input = 'ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty';
const find = 'teen';
const replaceWith = 'teenhundred';

const output = replaceLastOccurrenceInString(input, find, replaceWith);
console.log(output);

// output: ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteenhundred twenty

Hope that helps!

Couldn't you just reverse the string and replace only the first occurrence of the reversed search pattern? I'm thinking . . .

var list = ['one', 'two', 'three', 'four'];
var str = 'one two, one three, one four, one';
for ( var i = 0; i < list.length; i++)
{
     if (str.endsWith(list[i])
     {
         var reversedHaystack = str.split('').reverse().join('');
         var reversedNeedle = list[i].split('').reverse().join('');

         reversedHaystack = reversedHaystack.replace(reversedNeedle, 'hsinif');
         str = reversedHaystack.split('').reverse().join('');
     }
 }

If speed is important, use this:

/**
 * Replace last occurrence of a string with another string
 * x - the initial string
 * y - string to replace
 * z - string that will replace
 */
function replaceLast(x, y, z){
    var a = x.split("");
    var length = y.length;
    if(x.lastIndexOf(y) != -1) {
        for(var i = x.lastIndexOf(y); i < x.lastIndexOf(y) + length; i++) {
            if(i == x.lastIndexOf(y)) {
                a[i] = z;
            }
            else {
                delete a[i];
            }
        }
    }

    return a.join("");
}

It's faster than using RegExp.

Simple solution would be to use substring method. Since string is ending with list element, we can use string.length and calculate end index for substring without using lastIndexOf method

str = str.substring(0, str.length - list[i].length) + "finish"

function replaceLast(text, searchValue, replaceValue) {
  const lastOccurrenceIndex = text.lastIndexOf(searchValue)
  return `${
      text.slice(0, lastOccurrenceIndex)
    }${
      replaceValue
    }${
      text.slice(lastOccurrenceIndex + searchValue.length)
    }`
}

Old fashioned and big code but efficient as possible:

function replaceLast(origin,text){
    textLenght = text.length;
    originLen = origin.length
    if(textLenght == 0)
        return origin;

    start = originLen-textLenght;
    if(start < 0){
        return origin;
    }
    if(start == 0){
        return "";
    }
    for(i = start; i >= 0; i--){
        k = 0;
        while(origin[i+k] == text[k]){
            k++
            if(k == textLenght)
                break;
        }
        if(k == textLenght)
            break;
    }
    //not founded
    if(k != textLenght)
        return origin;

    //founded and i starts on correct and i+k is the first char after
    end = origin.substring(i+k,originLen);
    if(i == 0)
        return end;
    else{
        start = origin.substring(0,i) 
        return (start + end);
    }
}

if (string.search(searchstring)>-1) {
    stringnew=((text.split("").reverse().join("")).replace(searchstring, 
    subststring).split("").reverse().join(""))
    }

//with var string= "sdgu()ert(dhfj ) he ) gfrt"
//var searchstring="f"
//var subststring="X"
//var stringnew=""
//results in
//string    :  sdgu()ert(dhfj ) he ) gfrt
//stringnew :  sdgu()ert(dhfj ) he ) gXrt

str = (str + '?').replace(list[i] + '?', 'finish');