Format a JavaScript string using placeholders and an object of substitutions?

How about using ES6 template literals?

var a = "cat";
var b = "fat";
console.log(`my ${a} is ${b}`); //notice back-ticked string

More about template literals...

Currently there is still no native solution in Javascript for this behavior. Tagged templates are something related, but don't solve it.

Here there is a refactor of alex's solution with an object for replacements.

The solution uses arrow functions and a similar syntax for the placeholders as the native Javascript interpolation in template literals ({} instead of %%). Also there is no need to include delimiters (%) in the names of the replacements.

There are two flavors (three with the update): descriptive, reduced, elegant reduced with groups.

Descriptive solution:

const stringWithPlaceholders = 'My Name is {name} and my age is {age}.';

const replacements = {
  name: 'Mike',
  age: '26',
};

const string = stringWithPlaceholders.replace(
  /{\w+}/g,
  placeholderWithDelimiters => {
    const placeholderWithoutDelimiters = placeholderWithDelimiters.substring(
      1,
      placeholderWithDelimiters.length - 1,
    );
    const stringReplacement = replacements[placeholderWithoutDelimiters] || placeholderWithDelimiters;
    return stringReplacement;
  },
);

console.log(string);

Reduced solution:

const stringWithPlaceholders = 'My Name is {name} and my age is {age}.';

const replacements = {
  name: 'Mike',
  age: '26',
};

const string = stringWithPlaceholders.replace(/{\w+}/g, placeholder =>
  replacements[placeholder.substring(1, placeholder.length - 1)] || placeholder
);

console.log(string);

UPDATE 2020-12-10

Elegant reduced solution with groups, as suggested by @Kade in the comments:

const stringWithPlaceholders = 'My Name is {name} and my age is {age}.';

const replacements = {
  name: 'Mike',
  age: '26',
};

const string = stringWithPlaceholders.replace(
  /{(\w+)}/g, 
  (placeholderWithDelimiters, placeholderWithoutDelimiters) =>
    replacements[placeholderWithoutDelimiters] || placeholderWithDelimiters
);

console.log(string);

UPDATE 2021-01-21

Support empty string as a replacement, as suggested by @Jesper in the comments:

const stringWithPlaceholders = 'My Name is {name} and my age is {age}.';

const replacements = {
  name: 'Mike',
  age: '',
};

const string = stringWithPlaceholders.replace(
  /{(\w+)}/g, 
  (placeholderWithDelimiters, placeholderWithoutDelimiters) =>
  replacements.hasOwnProperty(placeholderWithoutDelimiters) ? 
    replacements[placeholderWithoutDelimiters] : placeholderWithDelimiters
);

console.log(string);

You can use JQuery(jquery.validate.js) to make it work easily.

$.validator.format("My name is {0}, I'm {1} years old",["Bob","23"]);

Or if you want to use just that feature you can define that function and just use it like

function format(source, params) {
    $.each(params,function (i, n) {
        source = source.replace(new RegExp("\\{" + i + "\\}", "g"), n);
    })
    return source;
}
alert(format("{0} is a {1}", ["Michael", "Guy"]));

credit to jquery.validate.js team

As with modern browser, placeholder is supported by new version of Chrome / Firefox, similar as the C style function printf().

Placeholders:

• %s String.
• %d,%i Integer number.
• %f Floating point number.
• %o Object hyperlink.

e.g.

console.log("generation 0:\t%f, %f, %f", a1a1, a1a2, a2a2);

BTW, to see the output:

• In Chrome, use shortcut Ctrl + Shift + J or F12 to open developer tool.
• In Firefox, use shortcut Ctrl + Shift + K or F12 to open developer tool.

@Update - nodejs support

Seems nodejs don't support %f, instead, could use %d in nodejs. With %d number will be printed as floating number, not just integer.

Just use replace()

var values = {"%NAME%":"Mike","%AGE%":"26","%EVENT%":"20"};
var substitutedString = "My Name is %NAME% and my age is %AGE%.".replace("%NAME%", $values["%NAME%"]).replace("%AGE%", $values["%AGE%"]);

You can use a custom replace function like this:

var str = "My Name is %NAME% and my age is %AGE%.";
var replaceData = {"%NAME%":"Mike","%AGE%":"26","%EVENT%":"20"};

function substitute(str, data) {
    var output = str.replace(/%[^%]+%/g, function(match) {
        if (match in data) {
            return(data[match]);
        } else {
            return("");
        }
    });
    return(output);
}

var output = substitute(str, replaceData);

You can see it work here: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/DyCwk/.

This allows you to do exactly that

NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/package/stringinject

GitHub: https://github.com/tjcafferkey/stringinject

By doing the following:

var str = stringInject("My username is {username} on {platform}", { username: "tjcafferkey", platform: "GitHub" });

// My username is tjcafferkey on Git

Another solution if you're using node.js is StackExchange's own formatUnicorn utility function (https://www.npmjs.com/package/format-unicorn):

let x = {name:'jason', food:'pine cones'};
let s = '{name} enjoys a delicious bowl of {food}';

let formatted = x.formatUnicorn(s);

Also, a bit of an edge case, but if you aren't using Node but you do just happen to be writing a userscript for SE sites, then formatUnicorn will already be on the String prototype.

If you want to do something closer to console.log like replacing %s placeholders like in

>console.log("Hello %s how are you %s is everything %s?", "Loreto", "today", "allright")
>Hello Loreto how are you today is everything allright?

I wrote this

function log() {
  var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
  var rep= args.slice(1, args.length);
  var i=0;
  var output = args[0].replace(/%s/g, function(match,idx) {
    var subst=rep.slice(i, ++i);
    return( subst );
  });
   return(output);
}
res=log("Hello %s how are you %s is everything %s?", "Loreto", "today", "allright");
document.getElementById("console").innerHTML=res;

<span id="console"/>

you will get

>log("Hello %s how are you %s is everything %s?", "Loreto", "today", "allright")
>"Hello Loreto how are you today is everything allright?"

UPDATE

I have added a simple variant as String.prototype useful when dealing with string transformations, here is it:

String.prototype.log = function() {
    var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
    var rep= args.slice(0, args.length);
    var i=0;
    var output = this.replace(/%s|%d|%f|%@/g, function(match,idx) {
      var subst=rep.slice(i, ++i);
      return( subst );
    });
    return output;
   }

In that case you will do

"Hello %s how are you %s is everything %s?".log("Loreto", "today", "allright")
"Hello Loreto how are you today is everything allright?"

Try this version here

I have written a code that lets you format string easily.

Use this function.

function format() {
    if (arguments.length === 0) {
        throw "No arguments";
    }
    const string = arguments[0];
    const lst = string.split("{}");
    if (lst.length !== arguments.length) {
        throw "Placeholder format mismatched";
    }
    let string2 = "";
    let off = 1;
    for (let i = 0; i < lst.length; i++) {
        if (off < arguments.length) {
            string2 += lst[i] + arguments[off++]
        } else {
            string2 += lst[i]
        }
    }
    return string2;
}

Example

format('My Name is {} and my age is {}', 'Mike', 26);

Output

My Name is Mike and my age is 26

ES6:

const strFormat = (str, ...args) => args.reduce((s, v) => s.replace('%s', v), str);

// Use it like:
const result = strFormat('%s is %s yrs old', 'name', 23);

Lots of good/similar answers here. I wanted the ability to easily get a nested key in an object (or perhaps some JSON data structure) for substitution, so I took the following simple approach:

const getKey = (d, path) => {
  // path can be a string like 'key1.key2' or an iterable of keys
  if (typeof(path) === 'string') {
    path = path.split('.')
  }
  return path.reduce((x, y) => x[y], d)
}

const inject = (str, obj) => str.replace(/\${(.*?)}/g, (x,g)=> getKey(obj, g));


// Example

> const str = 'there are ${a} ways to ${b.c}'
undefined
> inject(str, {'a':'many', 'b': {'c': 'skin a cat'}})
'there are many ways to skin a cat'

Some inspiration from this and this.

As a quick example:

var name = 'jack';
var age = 40;
console.log('%s is %d yrs old',name,age);

The output is:

jack is 40 yrs old

Here is another way of doing this by using es6 template literals dynamically at runtime.

const str = 'My name is ${name} and my age is ${age}.'
const obj = {name:'Simon', age:'33'}


const result = new Function('const {' + Object.keys(obj).join(',') + '} = this.obj;return `' + str + '`').call({obj})

document.body.innerHTML = result

const stringInject = (str = '', obj = {}) => {
  let newStr = str;
  Object.keys(obj).forEach((key) => {
    let placeHolder = `#${key}#`;
    if(newStr.includes(placeHolder)) {
      newStr = newStr.replace(placeHolder, obj[key] || " ");
    }
  });
  return newStr;
}

Input: stringInject("Hi #name#, How are you?", {name: "Ram"});
Output: "Hi Ram, How are you?"

This is a merged solution of Gerson Diniz and Shubham Vyas.

It is possible to pass a set of arguments or an object.

function strSwap(str) {

  if (!str) return null;
  
  let args = [];
  for (let a of arguments) 
    args.push(a);
  args.shift();
  
  if (!args.length) return null;
  
  // replacement by object - {{prop}}
  if (!!(args[0].constructor && args[0].constructor.name.toLowerCase() === 'object')) {
    for (let i in args[0]) {
      let n = `{{${i}}}`;
      str = str.includes(n) ? str.replaceAll(n, args[0][i] + '') : str;
    }
  }
  // replacement by placeholders - %s
  else {
    str = args.reduce((s, v) => s.replace('%s', v), str);
  }
  
  return str;

}

// ---------------------

console.log(strSwap('Hello %s, my name is %s.', 'alice', 'bob'));

console.log(strSwap('Hello {{a}}, my name is {{b}}. Hello {{b}}.', {
  a: 'alice', 
  b: 'bob'
}));

Alex's code rock! Thanks!

Small modification to replacement function to be able to use the replacement variables by name directly.

var replacements = {
    "NAME": "Mike",
    "AGE": "26",
    "EVENT": "20"
},    
str = 'My Name is ${NAME} and my age is ${AGE}, the following ${placeholder} is missing.';

str = str.replace(/\$\{(.*?)\}/g, function(placeholder, name) {
    return replacements[name] || placeholder;
});