How to remove an array of words from a string in javascript?

Question

I have a function that can remove words from a string. It is :

  var removeFromString = function(oldStr, fullStr) { 
    return fullStr.split(oldStr).join(''); 
  };

I use it like this :

 console.log( removeFromString("Hello", "Hello World") ); // World
 console.log( removeFromString("Hello", "Hello-World") ); // -World

But the main problem :

 var str = "Remove one, two, not three and four";

Here we have to remove "one", "two" & "four". This can be done by :

var a = removeFromString("one, two,", str); // Remove not three and four
var b = removeFromString("and four", a); // Remove not three
console.log(b); // Remove not three

In the above example, I had to use the function twice. I want it to be something like this :

 var c = removeFromString(["one, two," , "and four"], str); // Remove not three
 console.log(c); // Remove not three

Yes, I actually want to upgrade the removeFromString function ! How can I do that ?

Code Maniac · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-14 16:25:24Z

6

You can use join and build regex dynamically from the array and replace the matching values

function removeFromString(arr,str){
  let regex = new RegExp("\\b"+arr.join('|')+"\\b","gi")
  return str.replace(regex, '')
}

console.log(removeFromString(["one, two," , "and four"],"Remove one, two, not three and four" ));
console.log(removeFromString(["one" , "and four"],"Remove one, two, not three and four" ));
console.log(removeFromString(["Hello"], "Hello World") )

To cover cases where your word to match can have meta-characters you can expand the above example in this way

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

function removeFromString(arr, str) {
  let escapedArr = arr.map(v=> escape(v))
  let regex = new RegExp("(?:^|\\s)"+escapedArr.join('|') + "(?!\\S)", "gi")
  return str.replace(regex, '')
}

console.log(removeFromString(["one, two,", "and four"], "Remove one, two, not three and four"));
console.log(removeFromString(["one", "and four"], "Remove one, two, not three and four"));
console.log(removeFromString(["Hello"], "Hello World"))
console.log(removeFromString(["He*llo"], "He*llo World"))
console.log(removeFromString(["Hello*"], "Hello* World"))

edited Oct 14, 2019 at 16:25

answered Oct 14, 2019 at 12:16

Code Maniac

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1 Comment

Christian C. Salvadó Over a year ago

I would just suggest sanitizing the strings to avoid building an invalid regexp, and making it able to search for special chars such as ., *, etc... More info: here

Christian C. Salvadó · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-14 12:23:13Z

4

Another approach using reduce:

function removeFromString(words, str) {
  return words.reduce((result, word) => result.replace(word, ''), str)
}

const str = "Remove one, two, not three and four"
const result  = removeFromString(["one, two, " , "and four"], str)

console.log(result)

answered Oct 14, 2019 at 12:23

Christian C. Salvadó

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1 Comment

cezar Over a year ago

Great use of Array.prototype.reduce. Just one remark: it would be better to use replaceAll instead of replace, if you want to replace all occurences of word.

Dino · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-15 06:48:42Z

2

You can try this:

function removeFromString(arr, str){
    arr.forEach(w => str = str.replace(w, ''));
    return str;
}

edited Oct 15, 2019 at 6:48

Dino

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answered Oct 14, 2019 at 12:27

Mohamed K. Bakir

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1 Comment

Murray Foxcroft Over a year ago

Hi Mo, please add a description to your answer as to how this solves the question.

Glenn van Acker · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-14 12:15:54Z

0

wordArray.forEach(word => {
    sentence = sentence.replace(word, '');
})

answered Oct 14, 2019 at 12:15

Glenn van Acker

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Comments

Aditya Arsh · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-14 12:20:38Z

0

You need something like this:

function newRemoveFromString(stringArray,string){

    for(var i=0;i<stringArray.length;i++){

        string=removeFromString(stringArray[i],string);

    }
    return string;
}

It loops through the words in the Array and removes them one by one.

answered Oct 14, 2019 at 12:20

Aditya Arsh

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Comments

Sibtain · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-14 12:38:57Z

0

try this

function replaceStr(myString,list)
  {
    $.each(list,function(i,item){
    myString=myString.replace('Hello', item);
    });   
  }
  
  /*Now use this fucntion like this */
replaceStr(yourstring,arrayOfWords);
or replaceStr(yourString,{"word1","word2"});

answered Oct 14, 2019 at 12:38

Sibtain

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