jQuery - Replace all parentheses in a string

Question

I tried this:

mystring= mystring.replace(/"/g, "").replace(/'/g, "").replace("(", "").replace(")", "");

It works for all double and single quotes but for parentheses, this only replaces the first parenthesis in the string.

How can I make it work to replace all parentheses in the string using JavaScript? Or replace all special characters in a string?

oops! hope you understand the requirement, i need to get this done either by jquery or standard javascript. would you be able to help me? — HaBo, Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

score 51 · Accepted Answer · edited May 07 '12 at 13:31

51

Try the following:

mystring= mystring.replace(/"/g, "").replace(/'/g, "").replace(/\(|\)/g, "");

A little bit of REGEX to grab those pesky parentheses.

edited May 07 '12 at 13:31

René Schubert

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answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

George Reith

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score 29 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

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You should use something more like this:

mystring = mystring.replace(/["'()]/g,"");

The reason it wasn't working for the others is because you forgot the "global" argument (g)

note that [...] is a character class. anything between those brackets is replaced.

answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

Joseph Marikle

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Do you not need to escape the parentheses? – Matt Fellows Feb 02 '12 at 15:59
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@MattFellows not while it's in a character class. (I tend to put special characters in character classes just so I don't have to escape them... makes it more readable for me at least :P) – Joseph Marikle Feb 02 '12 at 16:00
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@MattFellows I will add however that the exceptions to this are `[`, `]`, and `\\` which do need escaped. – Joseph Marikle Feb 02 '12 at 16:02
@JosephMarikle I learn something new every day, thanks! I had no clue you don't have to escape them. – nana Feb 02 '12 at 16:06

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

You should be able to do this in a single replace statement.

mystring = mystring.replace(/["'\(\)]/g, "");

If you're trying to replace all special characters you might want to use a pattern like this.

mystring = mystring.replace(/\W/g, "");

Which will replace any non-word character.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:58

3

You can also use a regular experession if you're looking for parenthesis, you just need to escape them.

mystring = mystring.replace(/\(|\)/g, '');

This will remove all ( and ) in the entire string.

answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:58

jAndy

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 16:04

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Just one replace will do:

"\"a(b)c'd{e}f[g]".replace(/[\(\)\[\]{}'"]/g,"")

answered Feb 02 '12 at 16:04

nana

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 06 '17 at 14:45

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This can solve the problem: myString = myString.replace(/\"|\'|\(|\)/) Example

answered Mar 06 '17 at 14:45

user3745828

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

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That should work :

mystring= mystring.replace(/"/g, "").replace(/'/g, "").replace(/\(/g, "").replace(/\)/g, "");

answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

David Laberge

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

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That's because to replace multiple occurrences you must use a regex as the search string where you are using a string literal. As you have found searching by strings will only replace the first occurrence.

answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:57

Ash Burlaczenko

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score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 11 '16 at 15:50

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The string-based replace method will not replace globally. As such, you probably want to use the regex-based replacing method. It should be noted:

You need to escape ( and ) as they are used for group matching:

mystring= mystring.replace(/"/g, "").replace(/'/g, "").replace(/\(/g, "").replace(/\)/g, "");

edited Nov 11 '16 at 15:50

fragilewindows

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answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:58

Matt Fellows

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But there's no concept of "group" for the non-regex version of `replace` that the OP is using. – Chris Farmer Feb 02 '12 at 16:00
That is true - but to get global replacing you need to use a regex I believe - hence why I've sugested a regex, and then my statement is true. – Matt Fellows Feb 02 '12 at 16:02
It's true, but it's just a bit misleading IMO since the grouping issue was not the cause of the OP's original problem. I just think it's worth a specific mention that you're converting his string-based `replace`s to regex-based `replace`s. – Chris Farmer Feb 02 '12 at 16:11
Duly noted updating to make it explicit – Matt Fellows Feb 02 '12 at 16:29

jQuery - Replace all parentheses in a string

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