Question

74

Is there a RegExp.escape function in JavaScript?

rated 0 times [ 78] [ 4] / answers: 1 / hits: 183879 / 14 Years ago, tue, august 24, 2010, 12:00:00

I just want to create a regular expression out of any possible string.

var usersString = "Hello?!*`~World()[]";

var expression = new RegExp(RegExp.escape(usersString))

var matches = "Hello".match(expression);

Is there a built-in method for that? If not, what do people use? Ruby has RegExp.escape. I don't feel like I'd need to write my own, there have got to be something standard out there.

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mireyag

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answered 14 Years ago victorw · Accepted Answer

The function linked in another answer is insufficient. It fails to escape ^ or $ (start and end of string), or -, which in a character group is used for ranges.

Use this function:

function escapeRegex(string) {

    return string.replace(/[/-\^$*+?.()|[]{}]/g, '\$&');

}

While it may seem unnecessary at first glance, escaping - (as well as ^) makes the function suitable for escaping characters to be inserted into a character class as well as the body of the regex.

Escaping / makes the function suitable for escaping characters to be used in a JavaScript regex literal for later evaluation.

As there is no downside to escaping either of them, it makes sense to escape to cover wider use cases.

And yes, it is a disappointing failing that this is not part of standard JavaScript.