removing special characters from the text using jquery

Question

i have a condition where i have to replace the empty space with '-' and all other symbols like " *,%,',@,$ ....etc" should be removed , so for instance if i have a word real life , it should be written as real-life , another example , if i have a words fire officer's association it should be written as fire-officers-association .

I can replace empty space using jquery like :

var product= $("#product").val().replace(/ /g,'-');

but i m struggling to remove the special characters

Can any provide any suggestion or advice on how to acheive that Thanks

Answer 1

Add this to your code :

//@Author Karl-André Gagnon
if(String.prototype.replace){
    String.prototype.oldReplace = String.prototype.replace;
    String.prototype.replace = function(find, replace){
        var stringReturned = this;
        if(!find || !replace) return undefined;
        if(find instanceof Array){
            if(typeof replace == 'string'){
                for(var i = 0; i < find.length; i++){
                    stringReturned = stringReturned.oldReplace(find[i],replace);
                }
            }else if(replace instanceof Array && replace.length == 1){
                for(var i = 0; i < find.length; i++){
                    stringReturned = stringReturned.oldReplace(find[i],replace[0]);
                }
            }else if(replace instanceof Array){
                for(var i = 0; i < find.length; i++){
                    stringReturned = stringReturned.oldReplace(find[i],replace[i] ? replace[i] : '');
                }
            }else{
                stringReturned = undefined;
            }
        }else{
            stringReturned = stringReturned.oldReplace(find,replace);
        }
        return stringReturned;
    }
}

This will allow you to pass array as argument for .replace().

Then you can do this :

string.replace([/ /g, /["*%'@$]/g],['-', ''])

basicly, the first cell of the first array will be replaced by the first cell of the second array (like the replace in php).

Fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/6sk3n/

Answer 2

Try using:

var product= $("#product").val().replace(/[^a-z0-9\s]/gi, '').replace(/[_\s]/g, ' ')

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/4YwNC/