using var to pass string into a regex

Question

I have been searching SO to find the correct way to use a var as part of a regex . The idea is to get each of the searchable fields on the page and check if the text contains the search term, then if so, replace that portion of the text and wrap it in a styled span. this is the part of the code which is not working correctly, "/\\"+src+"/gi",

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

        var txt = $(this).text(),
            src = $('#Srch_Srch_txt').val();

        var s = txt.replace("/\\"+src+"/gi", '<span class=highlight>' + src + '</span>');

        $(this).html(s);

    })

Thank you in advance, Will.

You want : `new RegExp(...)` – Royi Namir Oct 16 '13 at 15:41 — Royi Namir, Oct 16 '13 at 15:41
http://stackoverflow.com/q/494035/235710 – Adil Shaikh Oct 16 '13 at 15:42 — Adil Shaikh, Oct 16 '13 at 15:42

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 16 '13 at 15:41

1

You can construct a dynamic regex doing string manipulation using Javascript's RegExp object

var re = new RegExp("ab" + src, "i"); // assuming src is a string variable

answered Oct 16 '13 at 15:41

anubhava

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A little confusing but I managed to get it working from your example... `var re = new RegExp( src, "gi"); var s = txt.replace(re, '' + src + '');` worked for me. – wf4 Oct 16 '13 at 15:54

using var to pass string into a regex

1 Answers1