Need a specific Javascript match regex

Question

I currently have the following:

var sText = 'I like stackoverflow';

if ( $(this).text().match( eval("/" + sText + "/ig") ) ) {

As you can see, this matches the entire string.

I need to match case insensitive text that contains all the words individually. So it will look for "I", "like" and "stackoverflow". It must have all 3 words.

Much appreciate the help.

So you want it to match both "I like stackoverflow" and in yoda form, "stackoverflow I like" but also string like "I dont like stackoverflow"? Question isn't clear — Paul Creasey
– Paul Creasey, Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 15:09
instead of eval, you could use RegExp object, which takes two arguments. First is a string (basically regexp, but without the trailing slashes), second is a string of flags ('ig' in your case). On the subject however, if I understood you correctly, var sText = "(i|like|stackoverflow)"; should do the trick? If it's correct, I'll add is at answer, if it isn't, be more specific. — zatatatata
– zatatatata, Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 15:12
Are you attached to RegEx? Javascript also has a String split method as well. Maybe I'm not understanding the question though. — Mike Christensen
– Mike Christensen, Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 15:12

Pi the dog · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-10 15:30:19Z

1

If you really need to do this with a match, you can use multiple positive lookahead patterns. For example, to match a, b, and c, in any order:

> p = /(?=.*a)(?=.*b)(?=.*c)/i

> 'abc'.match(p)
[""]

> 'cba'.match(p)
[""]

> 'ac'.match(p)
null

answered Oct 10, 2011 at 15:30

Pi the dog

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2 Comments

HGPB Over a year ago

All i needed was the regex but thanks - you rule. Fixed with: eval("/(?=.*" + aText.join(')(?=.*') + ")/ig"))

Paul Creasey Over a year ago

I'd be interested to see this benchmarked for a fairly large value of sText especially compared with splitting it into individual regexes per word. I can't be bothered though! This would match "like Stackoverflow" btw since it lacks word boundaries, and like contains i

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:12:02Z

0

Why use regular expressions when .indexOf will do the job?

var str = $(this).text().toLowerCase();
if (str.indexOf('i')>=0 && str.indexOf('like')>=0 && str.indexOf('stackoverflow')>=0) {  
    // ...
}

(Mind you, in this case the "i" search is wasted since it's contained in "like", but I assume your actual code is searching for more ordinary text.)

Possible related question: JavaScript: case-insensitive search

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:12

CommunityBot

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answered Oct 10, 2011 at 15:12

Blazemonger

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3 Comments

HGPB Over a year ago

The text may be 500 words long(+/-)

Blazemonger Over a year ago

@Haraldo: All the more reason to avoid regular expressions. (Or was that comment meant for another answer?)

HGPB Over a year ago

No I was looking at your conditions.

ipr101 · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-10 15:18:32Z

0

You could just split then loop -

var sText = 'I like stackoverflow';
var cText = 'stackoverflow like I';
var arr = sText.split(' ');
var match = true;

for (i=0;i<arr.length;i++) {
  if (!cText.match(eval("/" + arr[i] + "/ig"))) match= false;
}

alert(match);

You'd need to keep efficiency in mind if you were comparing lots of words though.

answered Oct 10, 2011 at 15:18

ipr101

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Comments

Chris Marasti-Georg · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-10 15:33:32Z

0

I think this is what you're looking for - the key is the word boundaries.

    var text = "text to match"

    var stringToLookFor = "I like stackoverflow";
    var words = stringToLookFor.split(" ");
    var match=true;
    $.each(words, function(index, word) {
        if(!text.match(eval("/\\b" + word + "\\b/i"))) {
            match=false;
            return false;
        }
    });

JSFiddle example.

edited Oct 10, 2011 at 15:33

answered Oct 10, 2011 at 15:30

Chris Marasti-Georg

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3 Comments

Paul Creasey Over a year ago

I added return false which will terminate the loop if a word does not match, yielding improved performance.

HGPB Over a year ago

Thanks for your time - I seemed to fix it with Piet Delport's solution.

Chris Marasti-Georg Over a year ago

@Haraldo does his method give a false positive match on "like stackoverflow"? Mine does not.

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