JavaScript string search

Question

I'm trying to search a string for any word of another string with javaScript. Let's say I have the following string that I want to search in:

"Oxford Street 100 London"

And my search term is like this:

"oxford london"

The above searchterm should give me a match since oxford and london is a part of the string to search in.

I have tried str.indexOf("oxford london") !== -1 but that doesn't work since it's not a combined word in the string to search in.

Is there any way of doing this?

Should it match because both the words are in it, or would 1 do - what if you searched for "oxford manchester"? — Reinstate Monica Cellio
– Reinstate Monica Cellio, Commented Apr 20, 2013 at 14:49
searching for "oxford manchester" should also give a match since the string contains "oxford" :-) — bomortensen
– bomortensen, Commented Apr 20, 2013 at 14:50

Explosion Pills · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20 14:55:29Z

1

You need to split the search terms by a space and search for each (case inensitively, I presume)

var terms = terms.split(' '),
    match = terms.every(function (term) {
        return str.toLowerCase.indexOf(term) > -1;
    });

edited Apr 20, 2013 at 14:55

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 14:48

Explosion Pills

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4 Comments

Rob W Over a year ago

forEach? Do you mean filter?

Bergi Over a year ago

Use .every instead of trying to filter with forEach (which doesn't even work)

Explosion Pills Over a year ago

Yes I meant filter, but every is even better

Rob W Over a year ago

You should use some instead of every. Now its only true if all keys are found, while the OP said that at least one key must be found.

jgillich · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20 15:03:42Z

1

I would just use a simple regular expression:

if("London, Oxford street".match(new RegExp("oxford london".split(/\W+/).join("|"), 'i'))) {
    alert("found");   
}

edited Apr 20, 2013 at 15:03

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 14:52

jgillich

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5 Comments

Reinstate Monica Cellio Over a year ago

That's not using the search string "oxford london" though.

Billy Moon Over a year ago

also, does not match "London, Oxford street"

jgillich Over a year ago

Yup you guys were right, updated it with the code stolen from user2264587.

Stano Over a year ago

Hello, tried it with if("London,Oford street"... and it also reported "found". Should be also somehow fixed.

Bergi Over a year ago

Use regex.test(str) instead of str.match(regex) !== null

Billy Moon · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-22 09:29:59Z

1

mystring = "Oxford Street 100 London"
search = "oxford london"
// split search string, by space, or by another delimiter if you like
terms = search.split(" ")
matches = false
// loop through all terms, assuming that matches is true if no negative comparisons are made
for(i=0; i< terms.length; i++){
  // make sure you lowercase both search string, and comparison string
  if(mystring.toLowerCase().indexOf(terms[i].toLowerCase())){
    matches = true
  }
}
// matches is true if any terms are found, and false if no term is found

edited Apr 22, 2013 at 9:29

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 14:55

Billy Moon

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8 Comments

Rob W Over a year ago

@Archer Please do not add such significant modifications to a post without the original author's consent.

Reinstate Monica Cellio Over a year ago

@RobW It's now wrong - no problem. I'll leave it the way you prefer :)

Billy Moon Over a year ago

@RobW I expect it was by accident, I was adding stuff at the same time, so he probably did not know he was deleting my additions

Billy Moon Over a year ago

@Archer, I could be wrong, but I don't think it is wrong. Matches starts off being assumed to be true - and if any of the terms are compared, and don't match, it turns to false. Seems like good logic to me.

Reinstate Monica Cellio Over a year ago

It needs to match if either of the words are found - not both ;)

|

Nolo · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20 15:14:16Z

0

This works:

var str = "Oxford Street 100 London";
var terms = "oxford london";
terms = terms.replace(" ", "|");          // "oxford|london"
var find = new RegExp(terms, "g");        // /oxford|london/g
alert(str.toLowerCase().match(find));     // ["oxford", "london"]

see this fiddle.

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 15:14

Nolo

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