jQuery variable-setting for regex

Question

This logs the values of each of 10 textarea elements as expected:

$('.container').each(function() {

    var textA = $('textarea', this).val();
    console.log(textA)

});

This regex works fine in the console:

"https://hi.com/hey junk nothing https://hi.com/there".match(/https:\/\/hi\.com\/[A-Za-z_]{1,15}/ig);

I get back: ["https://hi.com/hey", "https://hi.com/there"]

But when I try this:

$('.container').each(function() {

    var textA = $('textarea', this).val();
    var matches = textA.match(/https:\/\/hi\.com\/[A-Za-z_]{1,15}/ig);
    console.log(matches)

});

I get Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'match' of undefined

Why undefined? Is it because the Type of what is coming in to match hasn't been declared properly? If so, how should I declare so that it can be 'seen'?

@stribizhev how this would prevent textA to be undefined ? — Hacketo
– Hacketo, Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 13:22
@bahmait, you should check that in each loop $('textarea', this).val(); return something. maybe there is a .container that do not contains a textarea — Hacketo
– Hacketo, Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 13:23
My guess is that you have some .container with not texterea in it, returning this error. Here the same problem in a fiddle : jsfiddle.net/jvmmxrb1 — Karl-André Gagnon
– Karl-André Gagnon, Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 13:28
Of course: that's it -- I was focused only on the relevant containers. Thank you very much! — scharfmn
– scharfmn, Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 13:31

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-04 14:50:08Z

1

To answer the question: you need to check if textarea is present in the .container. You can check it with .length > 0:

$('.container').each(function() {

    var textArea = $('textarea', this);    // Changed here
    if (textArea.length > 0) {             // and here
        var textA = textArea.val();
        var matches = textA.match(/https:\/\/hi\.com\/[A-Za-z_]{1,15}/ig);
        console.log(matches);
    }

});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="container">
<textarea name="mytextarea" id="" cols="30" rows="10">
https://hi.com/new-url
More
  lines
      https://hi.com/last-url
    </textarea>        
</div>

<div class="container">
  Empty one with no textarea
</div>

answered Sep 4, 2015 at 14:50

Wiktor Stribiżew

631k41 gold badges502 silver badges632 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

jQuery variable-setting for regex

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related