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I have a string, let's say Hello world and I need to replace the char at index 3. How can I replace a char by specifying a index?
var str = "hello world";
I need something like
str.replaceAt(0,"h");
In JavaScript, strings are immutable, which means the best you can do is to create a new string with the changed content and assign the variable to point to it.
You'll need to define the replaceAt() function yourself:
String.prototype.replaceAt = function(index, replacement) {
return this.substring(0, index) + replacement + this.substring(index + replacement.length);
}
And use it like this:
var hello = "Hello World";
alert(hello.replaceAt(2, "!!")); // He!!o World
There is no replaceAt function in JavaScript. You can use the following code to replace any character in any string at specified position:
function rep() {
var str = 'Hello World';
str = setCharAt(str,4,'a');
alert(str);
}
function setCharAt(str,index,chr) {
if(index > str.length-1) return str;
return str.substring(0,index) + chr + str.substring(index+1);
}
<button onclick="rep();">click</button>
You can't. Take the characters before and after the position and concat into a new string:
var s = "Hello world";
var index = 3;
s = s.substring(0, index) + 'x' + s.substring(index + 1);
str = str.split('');
str[3] = 'h';
str = str.join('');
There are lot of answers here, and all of them are based on two methods:
METHOD1: split the string using two substrings and stuff the character between them
METHOD2: convert the string to character array, replace one array member and join it
Personally, I would use these two methods in different cases. Let me explain.
#FabioPhms: Your method was the one I initially used and I was afraid that it is bad on string with lots of characters. However, question is what's a lot of characters? I tested it on 10 "lorem ipsum" paragraphs and it took a few milliseconds. Then I tested it on 10 times larger string - there was really no big difference. Hm.
#vsync, #Cory Mawhorter: Your comments are unambiguous; however, again, what is a large string? I agree that for 32...100kb performance should better and one should use substring-variant for this one operation of character replacement.
But what will happen if I have to make quite a few replacements?
I needed to perform my own tests to prove what is faster in that case. Let's say we have an algorithm that will manipulate a relatively short string that consists of 1000 characters. We expect that in average each character in that string will be replaced ~100 times. So, the code to test something like this is:
var str = "... {A LARGE STRING HERE} ...";
for(var i=0; i<100000; i++)
{
var n = '' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 10);
var p = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000);
// replace character *n* on position *p*
}
I created a fiddle for this, and it's here.
There are two tests, TEST1 (substring) and TEST2 (array conversion).
Results:
TEST1: 195ms
TEST2: 6ms
It seems that array conversion beats substring by 2 orders of magnitude! So - what the hell happened here???
What actually happens is that all operations in TEST2 are done on array itself, using assignment expression like strarr2[p] = n. Assignment is really fast compared to substring on a large string, and its clear that it's going to win.
So, it's all about choosing the right tool for the job. Again.
Work with vectors is usually most effective to contact String.
I suggest the following function:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
Run this snippet:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
var str = "hello world";
str = str.replaceAt(3, "#");
document.write(str);
In Javascript strings are immutable so you have to do something like
var x = "Hello world"
x = x.substring(0, i) + 'h' + x.substring(i+1);
To replace the character in x at i with 'h'
function dothis() {
var x = document.getElementById("x").value;
var index = document.getElementById("index").value;
var text = document.getElementById("text").value;
var length = document.getElementById("length").value;
var arr = x.split("");
arr.splice(index, length, text);
var result = arr.join("");
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = result;
console.log(result);
}
dothis();
<input id="x" type="text" value="White Dog" placeholder="Enter Text" />
<input id="index" type="number" min="0"value="6" style="width:50px" placeholder="index" />
<input id="length" type="number" min="0"value="1" style="width:50px" placeholder="length" />
<input id="text" type="text" value="F" placeholder="New character" />
<br>
<button id="submit" onclick="dothis()">Run</button>
<p id="output"></p>
This method is good for small length strings but may be slow for larger text.
var x = "White Dog";
var arr = x.split(""); // ["W", "h", "i", "t", "e", " ", "D", "o", "g"]
arr.splice(6, 1, 'F');
/*
Here 6 is starting index and 1 is no. of array elements to remove and
final argument 'F' is the new character to be inserted.
*/
var result = arr.join(""); // "White Fog"
One-liner using String.replace with callback (no emoji support):
// 0 - index to replace, 'f' - replacement string
'dog'.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == 0? 'f': c)
// "fog"
Explained:
//String.replace will call the callback on each pattern match
//in this case - each character
'dog'.replace(/./g, function (character, index) {
if (index == 0) //we want to replace the first character
return 'f'
return character //leaving other characters the same
})
Generalizing Afanasii Kurakin's answer, we have:
function replaceAt(str, index, ch) {
return str.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == index ? ch : c);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
Let's expand and explain both the regular expression and the replacer function:
function replaceAt(str, index, newChar) {
function replacer(origChar, strIndex) {
if (strIndex === index)
return newChar;
else
return origChar;
}
return str.replace(/./g, replacer);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
The regular expression . matches exactly one character. The g makes it match every character in a for loop. The replacer function is called given both the original character and the index of where that character is in the string. We make a simple if statement to determine if we're going to return either origChar or newChar.
var str = "hello world";
console.log(str);
var arr = [...str];
arr[0] = "H";
str = arr.join("");
console.log(str);
This works similar to Array.splice:
String.prototype.splice = function (i, j, str) {
return this.substr(0, i) + str + this.substr(j, this.length);
};
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
this is easily achievable with RegExp!
const str = 'Hello RegEx!';
const index = 11;
const replaceWith = 'p';
//'Hello RegEx!'.replace(/^(.{11})(.)/, `$1p`);
str.replace(new RegExp(`^(.{${ index }})(.)`), `$1${ replaceWith }`);
//< "Hello RegExp"
Using the spread syntax, you may convert the string to an array, assign the character at the given position, and convert back to a string:
const str = "hello world";
function replaceAt(s, i, c) {
const arr = [...s]; // Convert string to array
arr[i] = c; // Set char c at pos i
return arr.join(''); // Back to string
}
// prints "hallo world"
console.log(replaceAt(str, 1, 'a'));
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
Check out this function for printing steps
steps(3)
// '# '
// '## '
// '###'
function steps(n, i = 0, arr = Array(n).fill(' ').join('')) {
if (i === n) {
return;
}
str = arr.split('');
str[i] = '#';
str = str.join('');
console.log(str);
steps(n, (i = i + 1), str);
}
#CemKalyoncu: Thanks for the great answer!
I also adapted it slightly to make it more like the Array.splice method (and took #Ates' note into consideration):
spliceString=function(string, index, numToDelete, char) {
return string.substr(0, index) + char + string.substr(index+numToDelete);
}
var myString="hello world!";
spliceString(myString,myString.lastIndexOf('l'),2,'mhole'); // "hello wormhole!"
If you want to replace characters in string, you should create mutable strings. These are essentially character arrays. You could create a factory:
function MutableString(str) {
var result = str.split("");
result.toString = function() {
return this.join("");
}
return result;
}
Then you can access the characters and the whole array converts to string when used as string:
var x = MutableString("Hello");
x[0] = "B"; // yes, we can alter the character
x.push("!"); // good performance: no new string is created
var y = "Hi, "+x; // converted to string: "Hi, Bello!"
You can extend the string type to include the inset method:
String.prototype.append = function (index,value) {
return this.slice(0,index) + value + this.slice(index);
};
var s = "New string";
alert(s.append(4,"complete "));
Then you can call the function:
You can concatenate using sub-string function at first select text before targeted index and after targeted index then concatenate with your potential char or string. This one is better
const myString = "Hello world";
const index = 3;
const stringBeforeIndex = myString.substring(0, index);
const stringAfterIndex = myString.substring(index + 1);
const replaceChar = "X";
myString = stringBeforeIndex + replaceChar + stringAfterIndex;
console.log("New string - ", myString)
or
const myString = "Hello world";
let index = 3;
myString = myString.substring(0, index) + "X" + myString.substring(index + 1);
I did a function that does something similar to what you ask, it checks if a character in string is in an array of not allowed characters if it is it replaces it with ''
var validate = function(value){
var notAllowed = [";","_",">","<","'","%","$","&","/","|",":","=","*"];
for(var i=0; i<value.length; i++){
if(notAllowed.indexOf(value.charAt(i)) > -1){
value = value.replace(value.charAt(i), "");
value = validate(value);
}
}
return value;
}
Here is a version I came up with if you want to style words or individual characters at their index in react/javascript.
replaceAt( yourArrayOfIndexes, yourString/orArrayOfStrings )
Working example: https://codesandbox.io/s/ov7zxp9mjq
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const replaceValue = i => string[i] = <b>{string[i]}</b>;
indexArray.forEach(replaceValue);
return string;
}
And here is another alternate method
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const startTag = '<b>';
const endTag = '</b>';
const tagLetter = i => string.splice(i, 1, startTag + string[i] + endTag);
indexArray.forEach(tagLetter);
return string.join('');
}
And another...
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
for (let i = 0; i < indexArray.length; i++) {
string = Object.assign(string, {
[indexArray[i]]: <b>{string[indexArray[i]]}</b>
});
}
return string;
}
Here is my solution using the ternary and map operator. More readable, maintainable end easier to understand if you ask me.
It is more into es6 and best practices.
function replaceAt() {
const replaceAt = document.getElementById('replaceAt').value;
const str = 'ThisIsATestStringToReplaceCharAtSomePosition';
const newStr = Array.from(str).map((character, charIndex) => charIndex === (replaceAt - 1) ? '' : character).join('');
console.log(`New string: ${newStr}`);
}
<input type="number" id="replaceAt" min="1" max="44" oninput="replaceAt()"/>
My safe approach with negative indexes
/**
* #param {string} str
* #param {number} index
* #param {string} replacement
* #returns {string}
*/
static replaceAt (str, index, replacement)
{
if (index < 0) index = str.length + index
if (index < 0 || index >= str.length) throw new Error(`Index (${index}) out of bounds "${str}"`)
return str.substring(0, index) + replacement + str.substring(index + 1)
}
Use it like that:
replaceAt('my string', -1, 'G') // 'my strinG'
replaceAt('my string', 2, 'yy') // 'myyystring'
replaceAt('my string', 22, 'yy') // Uncaught Error: Index (22) out of bounds "my string"
Lets say you want to replace Kth index (0-based index) with 'Z'.
You could use Regex to do this.
var re = var re = new RegExp("((.){" + K + "})((.){1})")
str.replace(re, "$1A$`");
You can use the following function to replace Character or String at a particular position of a String. To replace all the following match cases use String.prototype.replaceAllMatches() function.
String.prototype.replaceMatch = function(matchkey, replaceStr, matchIndex) {
var retStr = this, repeatedIndex = 0;
for (var x = 0; (matchkey != null) && (retStr.indexOf(matchkey) > -1); x++) {
if (repeatedIndex == 0 && x == 0) {
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey);
} else { // matchIndex > 0
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey, repeatedIndex + 1);
}
if (x == matchIndex) {
retStr = retStr.substring(0, repeatedIndex) + replaceStr + retStr.substring(repeatedIndex + (matchkey.length));
matchkey = null; // To break the loop.
}
}
return retStr;
};
Test:
var str = "yash yas $dfdas.**";
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('as', '*', 2) );
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('y', '~', 1) );
Output:
Index Matched replace : yash yas $dfd*.**
Index Matched replace : yash ~as $dfdas.**
I se this to make a string proper case, that is, the first letter is Upper Case and all the rest are lower case:
function toProperCase(someString){
return someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length));
};
This first thing done is to ensure ALL the string is lower case - someString.toLowerCase()
then it converts the very first character to upper case -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase()
then it takes a substring of the remaining string less the first character -someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
then it concatenates the two and returns the new string -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
New parameters could be added for the replacement character index and the replacement character, then two substrings formed and the indexed character replaced then concatenated in much the same way.
The solution does not work for negative index so I add a patch to it.
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, character) {
if(index>-1) return this.substr(0, index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
else return this.substr(0, this.length+index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
}
"hello world".replace(/(.{3})./, "$1h")
// 'helho world'
The methods on here are complicated.
I would do it this way:
var myString = "this is my string";
myString = myString.replace(myString.charAt(number goes here), "insert replacement here");
This is as simple as it gets.
I have a string, let's say Hello world and I need to replace the char at index 3. How can I replace a char by specifying a index?
var str = "hello world";
I need something like
str.replaceAt(0,"h");
In JavaScript, strings are immutable, which means the best you can do is to create a new string with the changed content and assign the variable to point to it.
You'll need to define the replaceAt() function yourself:
String.prototype.replaceAt = function(index, replacement) {
return this.substring(0, index) + replacement + this.substring(index + replacement.length);
}
And use it like this:
var hello = "Hello World";
alert(hello.replaceAt(2, "!!")); // He!!o World
There is no replaceAt function in JavaScript. You can use the following code to replace any character in any string at specified position:
function rep() {
var str = 'Hello World';
str = setCharAt(str,4,'a');
alert(str);
}
function setCharAt(str,index,chr) {
if(index > str.length-1) return str;
return str.substring(0,index) + chr + str.substring(index+1);
}
<button onclick="rep();">click</button>
You can't. Take the characters before and after the position and concat into a new string:
var s = "Hello world";
var index = 3;
s = s.substring(0, index) + 'x' + s.substring(index + 1);
str = str.split('');
str[3] = 'h';
str = str.join('');
There are lot of answers here, and all of them are based on two methods:
METHOD1: split the string using two substrings and stuff the character between them
METHOD2: convert the string to character array, replace one array member and join it
Personally, I would use these two methods in different cases. Let me explain.
#FabioPhms: Your method was the one I initially used and I was afraid that it is bad on string with lots of characters. However, question is what's a lot of characters? I tested it on 10 "lorem ipsum" paragraphs and it took a few milliseconds. Then I tested it on 10 times larger string - there was really no big difference. Hm.
#vsync, #Cory Mawhorter: Your comments are unambiguous; however, again, what is a large string? I agree that for 32...100kb performance should better and one should use substring-variant for this one operation of character replacement.
But what will happen if I have to make quite a few replacements?
I needed to perform my own tests to prove what is faster in that case. Let's say we have an algorithm that will manipulate a relatively short string that consists of 1000 characters. We expect that in average each character in that string will be replaced ~100 times. So, the code to test something like this is:
var str = "... {A LARGE STRING HERE} ...";
for(var i=0; i<100000; i++)
{
var n = '' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 10);
var p = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000);
// replace character *n* on position *p*
}
I created a fiddle for this, and it's here.
There are two tests, TEST1 (substring) and TEST2 (array conversion).
Results:
TEST1: 195ms
TEST2: 6ms
It seems that array conversion beats substring by 2 orders of magnitude! So - what the hell happened here???
What actually happens is that all operations in TEST2 are done on array itself, using assignment expression like strarr2[p] = n. Assignment is really fast compared to substring on a large string, and its clear that it's going to win.
So, it's all about choosing the right tool for the job. Again.
Work with vectors is usually most effective to contact String.
I suggest the following function:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
Run this snippet:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
var str = "hello world";
str = str.replaceAt(3, "#");
document.write(str);
In Javascript strings are immutable so you have to do something like
var x = "Hello world"
x = x.substring(0, i) + 'h' + x.substring(i+1);
To replace the character in x at i with 'h'
function dothis() {
var x = document.getElementById("x").value;
var index = document.getElementById("index").value;
var text = document.getElementById("text").value;
var length = document.getElementById("length").value;
var arr = x.split("");
arr.splice(index, length, text);
var result = arr.join("");
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = result;
console.log(result);
}
dothis();
<input id="x" type="text" value="White Dog" placeholder="Enter Text" />
<input id="index" type="number" min="0"value="6" style="width:50px" placeholder="index" />
<input id="length" type="number" min="0"value="1" style="width:50px" placeholder="length" />
<input id="text" type="text" value="F" placeholder="New character" />
<br>
<button id="submit" onclick="dothis()">Run</button>
<p id="output"></p>
This method is good for small length strings but may be slow for larger text.
var x = "White Dog";
var arr = x.split(""); // ["W", "h", "i", "t", "e", " ", "D", "o", "g"]
arr.splice(6, 1, 'F');
/*
Here 6 is starting index and 1 is no. of array elements to remove and
final argument 'F' is the new character to be inserted.
*/
var result = arr.join(""); // "White Fog"
One-liner using String.replace with callback (no emoji support):
// 0 - index to replace, 'f' - replacement string
'dog'.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == 0? 'f': c)
// "fog"
Explained:
//String.replace will call the callback on each pattern match
//in this case - each character
'dog'.replace(/./g, function (character, index) {
if (index == 0) //we want to replace the first character
return 'f'
return character //leaving other characters the same
})
Generalizing Afanasii Kurakin's answer, we have:
function replaceAt(str, index, ch) {
return str.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == index ? ch : c);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
Let's expand and explain both the regular expression and the replacer function:
function replaceAt(str, index, newChar) {
function replacer(origChar, strIndex) {
if (strIndex === index)
return newChar;
else
return origChar;
}
return str.replace(/./g, replacer);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
The regular expression . matches exactly one character. The g makes it match every character in a for loop. The replacer function is called given both the original character and the index of where that character is in the string. We make a simple if statement to determine if we're going to return either origChar or newChar.
var str = "hello world";
console.log(str);
var arr = [...str];
arr[0] = "H";
str = arr.join("");
console.log(str);
This works similar to Array.splice:
String.prototype.splice = function (i, j, str) {
return this.substr(0, i) + str + this.substr(j, this.length);
};
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
this is easily achievable with RegExp!
const str = 'Hello RegEx!';
const index = 11;
const replaceWith = 'p';
//'Hello RegEx!'.replace(/^(.{11})(.)/, `$1p`);
str.replace(new RegExp(`^(.{${ index }})(.)`), `$1${ replaceWith }`);
//< "Hello RegExp"
Using the spread syntax, you may convert the string to an array, assign the character at the given position, and convert back to a string:
const str = "hello world";
function replaceAt(s, i, c) {
const arr = [...s]; // Convert string to array
arr[i] = c; // Set char c at pos i
return arr.join(''); // Back to string
}
// prints "hallo world"
console.log(replaceAt(str, 1, 'a'));
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
Check out this function for printing steps
steps(3)
// '# '
// '## '
// '###'
function steps(n, i = 0, arr = Array(n).fill(' ').join('')) {
if (i === n) {
return;
}
str = arr.split('');
str[i] = '#';
str = str.join('');
console.log(str);
steps(n, (i = i + 1), str);
}
#CemKalyoncu: Thanks for the great answer!
I also adapted it slightly to make it more like the Array.splice method (and took #Ates' note into consideration):
spliceString=function(string, index, numToDelete, char) {
return string.substr(0, index) + char + string.substr(index+numToDelete);
}
var myString="hello world!";
spliceString(myString,myString.lastIndexOf('l'),2,'mhole'); // "hello wormhole!"
If you want to replace characters in string, you should create mutable strings. These are essentially character arrays. You could create a factory:
function MutableString(str) {
var result = str.split("");
result.toString = function() {
return this.join("");
}
return result;
}
Then you can access the characters and the whole array converts to string when used as string:
var x = MutableString("Hello");
x[0] = "B"; // yes, we can alter the character
x.push("!"); // good performance: no new string is created
var y = "Hi, "+x; // converted to string: "Hi, Bello!"
You can extend the string type to include the inset method:
String.prototype.append = function (index,value) {
return this.slice(0,index) + value + this.slice(index);
};
var s = "New string";
alert(s.append(4,"complete "));
Then you can call the function:
You can concatenate using sub-string function at first select text before targeted index and after targeted index then concatenate with your potential char or string. This one is better
const myString = "Hello world";
const index = 3;
const stringBeforeIndex = myString.substring(0, index);
const stringAfterIndex = myString.substring(index + 1);
const replaceChar = "X";
myString = stringBeforeIndex + replaceChar + stringAfterIndex;
console.log("New string - ", myString)
or
const myString = "Hello world";
let index = 3;
myString = myString.substring(0, index) + "X" + myString.substring(index + 1);
I did a function that does something similar to what you ask, it checks if a character in string is in an array of not allowed characters if it is it replaces it with ''
var validate = function(value){
var notAllowed = [";","_",">","<","'","%","$","&","/","|",":","=","*"];
for(var i=0; i<value.length; i++){
if(notAllowed.indexOf(value.charAt(i)) > -1){
value = value.replace(value.charAt(i), "");
value = validate(value);
}
}
return value;
}
Here is a version I came up with if you want to style words or individual characters at their index in react/javascript.
replaceAt( yourArrayOfIndexes, yourString/orArrayOfStrings )
Working example: https://codesandbox.io/s/ov7zxp9mjq
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const replaceValue = i => string[i] = <b>{string[i]}</b>;
indexArray.forEach(replaceValue);
return string;
}
And here is another alternate method
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const startTag = '<b>';
const endTag = '</b>';
const tagLetter = i => string.splice(i, 1, startTag + string[i] + endTag);
indexArray.forEach(tagLetter);
return string.join('');
}
And another...
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
for (let i = 0; i < indexArray.length; i++) {
string = Object.assign(string, {
[indexArray[i]]: <b>{string[indexArray[i]]}</b>
});
}
return string;
}
Here is my solution using the ternary and map operator. More readable, maintainable end easier to understand if you ask me.
It is more into es6 and best practices.
function replaceAt() {
const replaceAt = document.getElementById('replaceAt').value;
const str = 'ThisIsATestStringToReplaceCharAtSomePosition';
const newStr = Array.from(str).map((character, charIndex) => charIndex === (replaceAt - 1) ? '' : character).join('');
console.log(`New string: ${newStr}`);
}
<input type="number" id="replaceAt" min="1" max="44" oninput="replaceAt()"/>
My safe approach with negative indexes
/**
* #param {string} str
* #param {number} index
* #param {string} replacement
* #returns {string}
*/
static replaceAt (str, index, replacement)
{
if (index < 0) index = str.length + index
if (index < 0 || index >= str.length) throw new Error(`Index (${index}) out of bounds "${str}"`)
return str.substring(0, index) + replacement + str.substring(index + 1)
}
Use it like that:
replaceAt('my string', -1, 'G') // 'my strinG'
replaceAt('my string', 2, 'yy') // 'myyystring'
replaceAt('my string', 22, 'yy') // Uncaught Error: Index (22) out of bounds "my string"
Lets say you want to replace Kth index (0-based index) with 'Z'.
You could use Regex to do this.
var re = var re = new RegExp("((.){" + K + "})((.){1})")
str.replace(re, "$1A$`");
You can use the following function to replace Character or String at a particular position of a String. To replace all the following match cases use String.prototype.replaceAllMatches() function.
String.prototype.replaceMatch = function(matchkey, replaceStr, matchIndex) {
var retStr = this, repeatedIndex = 0;
for (var x = 0; (matchkey != null) && (retStr.indexOf(matchkey) > -1); x++) {
if (repeatedIndex == 0 && x == 0) {
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey);
} else { // matchIndex > 0
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey, repeatedIndex + 1);
}
if (x == matchIndex) {
retStr = retStr.substring(0, repeatedIndex) + replaceStr + retStr.substring(repeatedIndex + (matchkey.length));
matchkey = null; // To break the loop.
}
}
return retStr;
};
Test:
var str = "yash yas $dfdas.**";
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('as', '*', 2) );
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('y', '~', 1) );
Output:
Index Matched replace : yash yas $dfd*.**
Index Matched replace : yash ~as $dfdas.**
I se this to make a string proper case, that is, the first letter is Upper Case and all the rest are lower case:
function toProperCase(someString){
return someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length));
};
This first thing done is to ensure ALL the string is lower case - someString.toLowerCase()
then it converts the very first character to upper case -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase()
then it takes a substring of the remaining string less the first character -someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
then it concatenates the two and returns the new string -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
New parameters could be added for the replacement character index and the replacement character, then two substrings formed and the indexed character replaced then concatenated in much the same way.
The solution does not work for negative index so I add a patch to it.
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, character) {
if(index>-1) return this.substr(0, index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
else return this.substr(0, this.length+index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
}
"hello world".replace(/(.{3})./, "$1h")
// 'helho world'
The methods on here are complicated.
I would do it this way:
var myString = "this is my string";
myString = myString.replace(myString.charAt(number goes here), "insert replacement here");
This is as simple as it gets.
I have a string, let's say Hello world and I need to replace the char at index 3. How can I replace a char by specifying a index?
var str = "hello world";
I need something like
str.replaceAt(0,"h");
In JavaScript, strings are immutable, which means the best you can do is to create a new string with the changed content and assign the variable to point to it.
You'll need to define the replaceAt() function yourself:
String.prototype.replaceAt = function(index, replacement) {
return this.substring(0, index) + replacement + this.substring(index + replacement.length);
}
And use it like this:
var hello = "Hello World";
alert(hello.replaceAt(2, "!!")); // He!!o World
There is no replaceAt function in JavaScript. You can use the following code to replace any character in any string at specified position:
function rep() {
var str = 'Hello World';
str = setCharAt(str,4,'a');
alert(str);
}
function setCharAt(str,index,chr) {
if(index > str.length-1) return str;
return str.substring(0,index) + chr + str.substring(index+1);
}
<button onclick="rep();">click</button>
You can't. Take the characters before and after the position and concat into a new string:
var s = "Hello world";
var index = 3;
s = s.substring(0, index) + 'x' + s.substring(index + 1);
str = str.split('');
str[3] = 'h';
str = str.join('');
There are lot of answers here, and all of them are based on two methods:
METHOD1: split the string using two substrings and stuff the character between them
METHOD2: convert the string to character array, replace one array member and join it
Personally, I would use these two methods in different cases. Let me explain.
#FabioPhms: Your method was the one I initially used and I was afraid that it is bad on string with lots of characters. However, question is what's a lot of characters? I tested it on 10 "lorem ipsum" paragraphs and it took a few milliseconds. Then I tested it on 10 times larger string - there was really no big difference. Hm.
#vsync, #Cory Mawhorter: Your comments are unambiguous; however, again, what is a large string? I agree that for 32...100kb performance should better and one should use substring-variant for this one operation of character replacement.
But what will happen if I have to make quite a few replacements?
I needed to perform my own tests to prove what is faster in that case. Let's say we have an algorithm that will manipulate a relatively short string that consists of 1000 characters. We expect that in average each character in that string will be replaced ~100 times. So, the code to test something like this is:
var str = "... {A LARGE STRING HERE} ...";
for(var i=0; i<100000; i++)
{
var n = '' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 10);
var p = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000);
// replace character *n* on position *p*
}
I created a fiddle for this, and it's here.
There are two tests, TEST1 (substring) and TEST2 (array conversion).
Results:
TEST1: 195ms
TEST2: 6ms
It seems that array conversion beats substring by 2 orders of magnitude! So - what the hell happened here???
What actually happens is that all operations in TEST2 are done on array itself, using assignment expression like strarr2[p] = n. Assignment is really fast compared to substring on a large string, and its clear that it's going to win.
So, it's all about choosing the right tool for the job. Again.
Work with vectors is usually most effective to contact String.
I suggest the following function:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
Run this snippet:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
var str = "hello world";
str = str.replaceAt(3, "#");
document.write(str);
In Javascript strings are immutable so you have to do something like
var x = "Hello world"
x = x.substring(0, i) + 'h' + x.substring(i+1);
To replace the character in x at i with 'h'
function dothis() {
var x = document.getElementById("x").value;
var index = document.getElementById("index").value;
var text = document.getElementById("text").value;
var length = document.getElementById("length").value;
var arr = x.split("");
arr.splice(index, length, text);
var result = arr.join("");
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = result;
console.log(result);
}
dothis();
<input id="x" type="text" value="White Dog" placeholder="Enter Text" />
<input id="index" type="number" min="0"value="6" style="width:50px" placeholder="index" />
<input id="length" type="number" min="0"value="1" style="width:50px" placeholder="length" />
<input id="text" type="text" value="F" placeholder="New character" />
<br>
<button id="submit" onclick="dothis()">Run</button>
<p id="output"></p>
This method is good for small length strings but may be slow for larger text.
var x = "White Dog";
var arr = x.split(""); // ["W", "h", "i", "t", "e", " ", "D", "o", "g"]
arr.splice(6, 1, 'F');
/*
Here 6 is starting index and 1 is no. of array elements to remove and
final argument 'F' is the new character to be inserted.
*/
var result = arr.join(""); // "White Fog"
One-liner using String.replace with callback (no emoji support):
// 0 - index to replace, 'f' - replacement string
'dog'.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == 0? 'f': c)
// "fog"
Explained:
//String.replace will call the callback on each pattern match
//in this case - each character
'dog'.replace(/./g, function (character, index) {
if (index == 0) //we want to replace the first character
return 'f'
return character //leaving other characters the same
})
Generalizing Afanasii Kurakin's answer, we have:
function replaceAt(str, index, ch) {
return str.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == index ? ch : c);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
Let's expand and explain both the regular expression and the replacer function:
function replaceAt(str, index, newChar) {
function replacer(origChar, strIndex) {
if (strIndex === index)
return newChar;
else
return origChar;
}
return str.replace(/./g, replacer);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
The regular expression . matches exactly one character. The g makes it match every character in a for loop. The replacer function is called given both the original character and the index of where that character is in the string. We make a simple if statement to determine if we're going to return either origChar or newChar.
var str = "hello world";
console.log(str);
var arr = [...str];
arr[0] = "H";
str = arr.join("");
console.log(str);
This works similar to Array.splice:
String.prototype.splice = function (i, j, str) {
return this.substr(0, i) + str + this.substr(j, this.length);
};
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
this is easily achievable with RegExp!
const str = 'Hello RegEx!';
const index = 11;
const replaceWith = 'p';
//'Hello RegEx!'.replace(/^(.{11})(.)/, `$1p`);
str.replace(new RegExp(`^(.{${ index }})(.)`), `$1${ replaceWith }`);
//< "Hello RegExp"
Using the spread syntax, you may convert the string to an array, assign the character at the given position, and convert back to a string:
const str = "hello world";
function replaceAt(s, i, c) {
const arr = [...s]; // Convert string to array
arr[i] = c; // Set char c at pos i
return arr.join(''); // Back to string
}
// prints "hallo world"
console.log(replaceAt(str, 1, 'a'));
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
Check out this function for printing steps
steps(3)
// '# '
// '## '
// '###'
function steps(n, i = 0, arr = Array(n).fill(' ').join('')) {
if (i === n) {
return;
}
str = arr.split('');
str[i] = '#';
str = str.join('');
console.log(str);
steps(n, (i = i + 1), str);
}
#CemKalyoncu: Thanks for the great answer!
I also adapted it slightly to make it more like the Array.splice method (and took #Ates' note into consideration):
spliceString=function(string, index, numToDelete, char) {
return string.substr(0, index) + char + string.substr(index+numToDelete);
}
var myString="hello world!";
spliceString(myString,myString.lastIndexOf('l'),2,'mhole'); // "hello wormhole!"
If you want to replace characters in string, you should create mutable strings. These are essentially character arrays. You could create a factory:
function MutableString(str) {
var result = str.split("");
result.toString = function() {
return this.join("");
}
return result;
}
Then you can access the characters and the whole array converts to string when used as string:
var x = MutableString("Hello");
x[0] = "B"; // yes, we can alter the character
x.push("!"); // good performance: no new string is created
var y = "Hi, "+x; // converted to string: "Hi, Bello!"
You can extend the string type to include the inset method:
String.prototype.append = function (index,value) {
return this.slice(0,index) + value + this.slice(index);
};
var s = "New string";
alert(s.append(4,"complete "));
Then you can call the function:
You can concatenate using sub-string function at first select text before targeted index and after targeted index then concatenate with your potential char or string. This one is better
const myString = "Hello world";
const index = 3;
const stringBeforeIndex = myString.substring(0, index);
const stringAfterIndex = myString.substring(index + 1);
const replaceChar = "X";
myString = stringBeforeIndex + replaceChar + stringAfterIndex;
console.log("New string - ", myString)
or
const myString = "Hello world";
let index = 3;
myString = myString.substring(0, index) + "X" + myString.substring(index + 1);
I did a function that does something similar to what you ask, it checks if a character in string is in an array of not allowed characters if it is it replaces it with ''
var validate = function(value){
var notAllowed = [";","_",">","<","'","%","$","&","/","|",":","=","*"];
for(var i=0; i<value.length; i++){
if(notAllowed.indexOf(value.charAt(i)) > -1){
value = value.replace(value.charAt(i), "");
value = validate(value);
}
}
return value;
}
Here is a version I came up with if you want to style words or individual characters at their index in react/javascript.
replaceAt( yourArrayOfIndexes, yourString/orArrayOfStrings )
Working example: https://codesandbox.io/s/ov7zxp9mjq
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const replaceValue = i => string[i] = <b>{string[i]}</b>;
indexArray.forEach(replaceValue);
return string;
}
And here is another alternate method
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const startTag = '<b>';
const endTag = '</b>';
const tagLetter = i => string.splice(i, 1, startTag + string[i] + endTag);
indexArray.forEach(tagLetter);
return string.join('');
}
And another...
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
for (let i = 0; i < indexArray.length; i++) {
string = Object.assign(string, {
[indexArray[i]]: <b>{string[indexArray[i]]}</b>
});
}
return string;
}
Here is my solution using the ternary and map operator. More readable, maintainable end easier to understand if you ask me.
It is more into es6 and best practices.
function replaceAt() {
const replaceAt = document.getElementById('replaceAt').value;
const str = 'ThisIsATestStringToReplaceCharAtSomePosition';
const newStr = Array.from(str).map((character, charIndex) => charIndex === (replaceAt - 1) ? '' : character).join('');
console.log(`New string: ${newStr}`);
}
<input type="number" id="replaceAt" min="1" max="44" oninput="replaceAt()"/>
My safe approach with negative indexes
/**
* #param {string} str
* #param {number} index
* #param {string} replacement
* #returns {string}
*/
static replaceAt (str, index, replacement)
{
if (index < 0) index = str.length + index
if (index < 0 || index >= str.length) throw new Error(`Index (${index}) out of bounds "${str}"`)
return str.substring(0, index) + replacement + str.substring(index + 1)
}
Use it like that:
replaceAt('my string', -1, 'G') // 'my strinG'
replaceAt('my string', 2, 'yy') // 'myyystring'
replaceAt('my string', 22, 'yy') // Uncaught Error: Index (22) out of bounds "my string"
Lets say you want to replace Kth index (0-based index) with 'Z'.
You could use Regex to do this.
var re = var re = new RegExp("((.){" + K + "})((.){1})")
str.replace(re, "$1A$`");
You can use the following function to replace Character or String at a particular position of a String. To replace all the following match cases use String.prototype.replaceAllMatches() function.
String.prototype.replaceMatch = function(matchkey, replaceStr, matchIndex) {
var retStr = this, repeatedIndex = 0;
for (var x = 0; (matchkey != null) && (retStr.indexOf(matchkey) > -1); x++) {
if (repeatedIndex == 0 && x == 0) {
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey);
} else { // matchIndex > 0
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey, repeatedIndex + 1);
}
if (x == matchIndex) {
retStr = retStr.substring(0, repeatedIndex) + replaceStr + retStr.substring(repeatedIndex + (matchkey.length));
matchkey = null; // To break the loop.
}
}
return retStr;
};
Test:
var str = "yash yas $dfdas.**";
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('as', '*', 2) );
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('y', '~', 1) );
Output:
Index Matched replace : yash yas $dfd*.**
Index Matched replace : yash ~as $dfdas.**
I se this to make a string proper case, that is, the first letter is Upper Case and all the rest are lower case:
function toProperCase(someString){
return someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length));
};
This first thing done is to ensure ALL the string is lower case - someString.toLowerCase()
then it converts the very first character to upper case -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase()
then it takes a substring of the remaining string less the first character -someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
then it concatenates the two and returns the new string -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
New parameters could be added for the replacement character index and the replacement character, then two substrings formed and the indexed character replaced then concatenated in much the same way.
The solution does not work for negative index so I add a patch to it.
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, character) {
if(index>-1) return this.substr(0, index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
else return this.substr(0, this.length+index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
}
"hello world".replace(/(.{3})./, "$1h")
// 'helho world'
The methods on here are complicated.
I would do it this way:
var myString = "this is my string";
myString = myString.replace(myString.charAt(number goes here), "insert replacement here");
This is as simple as it gets.
I have a string, let's say Hello world and I need to replace the char at index 3. How can I replace a char by specifying a index?
var str = "hello world";
I need something like
str.replaceAt(0,"h");
In JavaScript, strings are immutable, which means the best you can do is to create a new string with the changed content and assign the variable to point to it.
You'll need to define the replaceAt() function yourself:
String.prototype.replaceAt = function(index, replacement) {
return this.substring(0, index) + replacement + this.substring(index + replacement.length);
}
And use it like this:
var hello = "Hello World";
alert(hello.replaceAt(2, "!!")); // He!!o World
There is no replaceAt function in JavaScript. You can use the following code to replace any character in any string at specified position:
function rep() {
var str = 'Hello World';
str = setCharAt(str,4,'a');
alert(str);
}
function setCharAt(str,index,chr) {
if(index > str.length-1) return str;
return str.substring(0,index) + chr + str.substring(index+1);
}
<button onclick="rep();">click</button>
You can't. Take the characters before and after the position and concat into a new string:
var s = "Hello world";
var index = 3;
s = s.substring(0, index) + 'x' + s.substring(index + 1);
str = str.split('');
str[3] = 'h';
str = str.join('');
There are lot of answers here, and all of them are based on two methods:
METHOD1: split the string using two substrings and stuff the character between them
METHOD2: convert the string to character array, replace one array member and join it
Personally, I would use these two methods in different cases. Let me explain.
#FabioPhms: Your method was the one I initially used and I was afraid that it is bad on string with lots of characters. However, question is what's a lot of characters? I tested it on 10 "lorem ipsum" paragraphs and it took a few milliseconds. Then I tested it on 10 times larger string - there was really no big difference. Hm.
#vsync, #Cory Mawhorter: Your comments are unambiguous; however, again, what is a large string? I agree that for 32...100kb performance should better and one should use substring-variant for this one operation of character replacement.
But what will happen if I have to make quite a few replacements?
I needed to perform my own tests to prove what is faster in that case. Let's say we have an algorithm that will manipulate a relatively short string that consists of 1000 characters. We expect that in average each character in that string will be replaced ~100 times. So, the code to test something like this is:
var str = "... {A LARGE STRING HERE} ...";
for(var i=0; i<100000; i++)
{
var n = '' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 10);
var p = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000);
// replace character *n* on position *p*
}
I created a fiddle for this, and it's here.
There are two tests, TEST1 (substring) and TEST2 (array conversion).
Results:
TEST1: 195ms
TEST2: 6ms
It seems that array conversion beats substring by 2 orders of magnitude! So - what the hell happened here???
What actually happens is that all operations in TEST2 are done on array itself, using assignment expression like strarr2[p] = n. Assignment is really fast compared to substring on a large string, and its clear that it's going to win.
So, it's all about choosing the right tool for the job. Again.
Work with vectors is usually most effective to contact String.
I suggest the following function:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
Run this snippet:
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
var a = this.split("");
a[index] = char;
return a.join("");
}
var str = "hello world";
str = str.replaceAt(3, "#");
document.write(str);
In Javascript strings are immutable so you have to do something like
var x = "Hello world"
x = x.substring(0, i) + 'h' + x.substring(i+1);
To replace the character in x at i with 'h'
function dothis() {
var x = document.getElementById("x").value;
var index = document.getElementById("index").value;
var text = document.getElementById("text").value;
var length = document.getElementById("length").value;
var arr = x.split("");
arr.splice(index, length, text);
var result = arr.join("");
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = result;
console.log(result);
}
dothis();
<input id="x" type="text" value="White Dog" placeholder="Enter Text" />
<input id="index" type="number" min="0"value="6" style="width:50px" placeholder="index" />
<input id="length" type="number" min="0"value="1" style="width:50px" placeholder="length" />
<input id="text" type="text" value="F" placeholder="New character" />
<br>
<button id="submit" onclick="dothis()">Run</button>
<p id="output"></p>
This method is good for small length strings but may be slow for larger text.
var x = "White Dog";
var arr = x.split(""); // ["W", "h", "i", "t", "e", " ", "D", "o", "g"]
arr.splice(6, 1, 'F');
/*
Here 6 is starting index and 1 is no. of array elements to remove and
final argument 'F' is the new character to be inserted.
*/
var result = arr.join(""); // "White Fog"
One-liner using String.replace with callback (no emoji support):
// 0 - index to replace, 'f' - replacement string
'dog'.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == 0? 'f': c)
// "fog"
Explained:
//String.replace will call the callback on each pattern match
//in this case - each character
'dog'.replace(/./g, function (character, index) {
if (index == 0) //we want to replace the first character
return 'f'
return character //leaving other characters the same
})
Generalizing Afanasii Kurakin's answer, we have:
function replaceAt(str, index, ch) {
return str.replace(/./g, (c, i) => i == index ? ch : c);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
Let's expand and explain both the regular expression and the replacer function:
function replaceAt(str, index, newChar) {
function replacer(origChar, strIndex) {
if (strIndex === index)
return newChar;
else
return origChar;
}
return str.replace(/./g, replacer);
}
let str = 'Hello World';
str = replaceAt(str, 1, 'u');
console.log(str); // Hullo World
The regular expression . matches exactly one character. The g makes it match every character in a for loop. The replacer function is called given both the original character and the index of where that character is in the string. We make a simple if statement to determine if we're going to return either origChar or newChar.
var str = "hello world";
console.log(str);
var arr = [...str];
arr[0] = "H";
str = arr.join("");
console.log(str);
This works similar to Array.splice:
String.prototype.splice = function (i, j, str) {
return this.substr(0, i) + str + this.substr(j, this.length);
};
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
this is easily achievable with RegExp!
const str = 'Hello RegEx!';
const index = 11;
const replaceWith = 'p';
//'Hello RegEx!'.replace(/^(.{11})(.)/, `$1p`);
str.replace(new RegExp(`^(.{${ index }})(.)`), `$1${ replaceWith }`);
//< "Hello RegExp"
Using the spread syntax, you may convert the string to an array, assign the character at the given position, and convert back to a string:
const str = "hello world";
function replaceAt(s, i, c) {
const arr = [...s]; // Convert string to array
arr[i] = c; // Set char c at pos i
return arr.join(''); // Back to string
}
// prints "hallo world"
console.log(replaceAt(str, 1, 'a'));
You could try
var strArr = str.split("");
strArr[0] = 'h';
str = strArr.join("");
Check out this function for printing steps
steps(3)
// '# '
// '## '
// '###'
function steps(n, i = 0, arr = Array(n).fill(' ').join('')) {
if (i === n) {
return;
}
str = arr.split('');
str[i] = '#';
str = str.join('');
console.log(str);
steps(n, (i = i + 1), str);
}
#CemKalyoncu: Thanks for the great answer!
I also adapted it slightly to make it more like the Array.splice method (and took #Ates' note into consideration):
spliceString=function(string, index, numToDelete, char) {
return string.substr(0, index) + char + string.substr(index+numToDelete);
}
var myString="hello world!";
spliceString(myString,myString.lastIndexOf('l'),2,'mhole'); // "hello wormhole!"
If you want to replace characters in string, you should create mutable strings. These are essentially character arrays. You could create a factory:
function MutableString(str) {
var result = str.split("");
result.toString = function() {
return this.join("");
}
return result;
}
Then you can access the characters and the whole array converts to string when used as string:
var x = MutableString("Hello");
x[0] = "B"; // yes, we can alter the character
x.push("!"); // good performance: no new string is created
var y = "Hi, "+x; // converted to string: "Hi, Bello!"
You can extend the string type to include the inset method:
String.prototype.append = function (index,value) {
return this.slice(0,index) + value + this.slice(index);
};
var s = "New string";
alert(s.append(4,"complete "));
Then you can call the function:
You can concatenate using sub-string function at first select text before targeted index and after targeted index then concatenate with your potential char or string. This one is better
const myString = "Hello world";
const index = 3;
const stringBeforeIndex = myString.substring(0, index);
const stringAfterIndex = myString.substring(index + 1);
const replaceChar = "X";
myString = stringBeforeIndex + replaceChar + stringAfterIndex;
console.log("New string - ", myString)
or
const myString = "Hello world";
let index = 3;
myString = myString.substring(0, index) + "X" + myString.substring(index + 1);
I did a function that does something similar to what you ask, it checks if a character in string is in an array of not allowed characters if it is it replaces it with ''
var validate = function(value){
var notAllowed = [";","_",">","<","'","%","$","&","/","|",":","=","*"];
for(var i=0; i<value.length; i++){
if(notAllowed.indexOf(value.charAt(i)) > -1){
value = value.replace(value.charAt(i), "");
value = validate(value);
}
}
return value;
}
Here is a version I came up with if you want to style words or individual characters at their index in react/javascript.
replaceAt( yourArrayOfIndexes, yourString/orArrayOfStrings )
Working example: https://codesandbox.io/s/ov7zxp9mjq
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const replaceValue = i => string[i] = <b>{string[i]}</b>;
indexArray.forEach(replaceValue);
return string;
}
And here is another alternate method
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
const startTag = '<b>';
const endTag = '</b>';
const tagLetter = i => string.splice(i, 1, startTag + string[i] + endTag);
indexArray.forEach(tagLetter);
return string.join('');
}
And another...
function replaceAt(indexArray, [...string]) {
for (let i = 0; i < indexArray.length; i++) {
string = Object.assign(string, {
[indexArray[i]]: <b>{string[indexArray[i]]}</b>
});
}
return string;
}
Here is my solution using the ternary and map operator. More readable, maintainable end easier to understand if you ask me.
It is more into es6 and best practices.
function replaceAt() {
const replaceAt = document.getElementById('replaceAt').value;
const str = 'ThisIsATestStringToReplaceCharAtSomePosition';
const newStr = Array.from(str).map((character, charIndex) => charIndex === (replaceAt - 1) ? '' : character).join('');
console.log(`New string: ${newStr}`);
}
<input type="number" id="replaceAt" min="1" max="44" oninput="replaceAt()"/>
My safe approach with negative indexes
/**
* #param {string} str
* #param {number} index
* #param {string} replacement
* #returns {string}
*/
static replaceAt (str, index, replacement)
{
if (index < 0) index = str.length + index
if (index < 0 || index >= str.length) throw new Error(`Index (${index}) out of bounds "${str}"`)
return str.substring(0, index) + replacement + str.substring(index + 1)
}
Use it like that:
replaceAt('my string', -1, 'G') // 'my strinG'
replaceAt('my string', 2, 'yy') // 'myyystring'
replaceAt('my string', 22, 'yy') // Uncaught Error: Index (22) out of bounds "my string"
Lets say you want to replace Kth index (0-based index) with 'Z'.
You could use Regex to do this.
var re = var re = new RegExp("((.){" + K + "})((.){1})")
str.replace(re, "$1A$`");
You can use the following function to replace Character or String at a particular position of a String. To replace all the following match cases use String.prototype.replaceAllMatches() function.
String.prototype.replaceMatch = function(matchkey, replaceStr, matchIndex) {
var retStr = this, repeatedIndex = 0;
for (var x = 0; (matchkey != null) && (retStr.indexOf(matchkey) > -1); x++) {
if (repeatedIndex == 0 && x == 0) {
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey);
} else { // matchIndex > 0
repeatedIndex = retStr.indexOf(matchkey, repeatedIndex + 1);
}
if (x == matchIndex) {
retStr = retStr.substring(0, repeatedIndex) + replaceStr + retStr.substring(repeatedIndex + (matchkey.length));
matchkey = null; // To break the loop.
}
}
return retStr;
};
Test:
var str = "yash yas $dfdas.**";
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('as', '*', 2) );
console.log('Index Matched replace : ', str.replaceMatch('y', '~', 1) );
Output:
Index Matched replace : yash yas $dfd*.**
Index Matched replace : yash ~as $dfdas.**
I se this to make a string proper case, that is, the first letter is Upper Case and all the rest are lower case:
function toProperCase(someString){
return someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length));
};
This first thing done is to ensure ALL the string is lower case - someString.toLowerCase()
then it converts the very first character to upper case -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase()
then it takes a substring of the remaining string less the first character -someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
then it concatenates the two and returns the new string -someString.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(someString.toLowerCase().substring(1,someString.length))
New parameters could be added for the replacement character index and the replacement character, then two substrings formed and the indexed character replaced then concatenated in much the same way.
The solution does not work for negative index so I add a patch to it.
String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, character) {
if(index>-1) return this.substr(0, index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
else return this.substr(0, this.length+index) + character + this.substr(index+character.length);
}
"hello world".replace(/(.{3})./, "$1h")
// 'helho world'
The methods on here are complicated.
I would do it this way:
var myString = "this is my string";
myString = myString.replace(myString.charAt(number goes here), "insert replacement here");
This is as simple as it gets.
Is there a way to retrieve the (starting) character positions inside a string of the results of a regex match() in Javascript?
exec returns an object with a index property:
var match = /bar/.exec("foobar");
if (match) {
console.log("match found at " + match.index);
}
And for multiple matches:
var re = /bar/g,
str = "foobarfoobar";
while ((match = re.exec(str)) != null) {
console.log("match found at " + match.index);
}
Here's what I came up with:
// Finds starting and ending positions of quoted text
// in double or single quotes with escape char support like \" \'
var str = "this is a \"quoted\" string as you can 'read'";
var patt = /'((?:\\.|[^'])*)'|"((?:\\.|[^"])*)"/igm;
while (match = patt.exec(str)) {
console.log(match.index + ' ' + patt.lastIndex);
}
In modern browsers, you can accomplish this with string.matchAll().
The benefit to this approach vs RegExp.exec() is that it does not rely on the regex being stateful, as in #Gumbo's answer.
let regexp = /bar/g;
let str = 'foobarfoobar';
let matches = [...str.matchAll(regexp)];
matches.forEach((match) => {
console.log("match found at " + match.index);
});
From developer.mozilla.org docs on the String .match() method:
The returned Array has an extra input property, which contains the
original string that was parsed. In addition, it has an index
property, which represents the zero-based index of the match in the
string.
When dealing with a non-global regex (i.e., no g flag on your regex), the value returned by .match() has an index property...all you have to do is access it.
var index = str.match(/regex/).index;
Here is an example showing it working as well:
var str = 'my string here';
var index = str.match(/here/).index;
console.log(index); // <- 10
I have successfully tested this all the way back to IE5.
You can use the search method of the String object. This will only work for the first match, but will otherwise do what you describe. For example:
"How are you?".search(/are/);
// 4
Here is a cool feature I discovered recently, I tried this on the console and it seems to work:
var text = "border-bottom-left-radius";
var newText = text.replace(/-/g,function(match, index){
return " " + index + " ";
});
Which returned: "border 6 bottom 13 left 18 radius"
So this seems to be what you are looking for.
I'm afraid the previous answers (based on exec) don't seem to work in case your regex matches width 0. For instance (Note: /\b/g is the regex that should find all word boundaries) :
var re = /\b/g,
str = "hello world";
var guard = 10;
while ((match = re.exec(str)) != null) {
console.log("match found at " + match.index);
if (guard-- < 0) {
console.error("Infinite loop detected")
break;
}
}
One can try to fix this by having the regex match at least 1 character, but this is far from ideal (and means you have to manually add the index at the end of the string)
var re = /\b./g,
str = "hello world";
var guard = 10;
while ((match = re.exec(str)) != null) {
console.log("match found at " + match.index);
if (guard-- < 0) {
console.error("Infinite loop detected")
break;
}
}
A better solution (which does only work on newer browsers / needs polyfills on older/IE versions) is to use String.prototype.matchAll()
var re = /\b/g,
str = "hello world";
console.log(Array.from(str.matchAll(re)).map(match => match.index))
Explanation:
String.prototype.matchAll() expects a global regex (one with g of global flag set). It then returns an iterator. In order to loop over and map() the iterator, it has to be turned into an array (which is exactly what Array.from() does). Like the result of RegExp.prototype.exec(), the resulting elements have an .index field according to the specification.
See the String.prototype.matchAll() and the Array.from() MDN pages for browser support and polyfill options.
Edit: digging a little deeper in search for a solution supported on all browsers
The problem with RegExp.prototype.exec() is that it updates the lastIndex pointer on the regex, and next time starts searching from the previously found lastIndex.
var re = /l/g,
str = "hello world";
console.log(re.lastIndex)
re.exec(str)
console.log(re.lastIndex)
re.exec(str)
console.log(re.lastIndex)
re.exec(str)
console.log(re.lastIndex)
This works great as long as the regex match actually has a width. If using a 0 width regex, this pointer does not increase, and so you get your infinite loop (note: /(?=l)/g is a lookahead for l -- it matches the 0-width string before an l. So it correctly goes to index 2 on the first call of exec(), and then stays there:
var re = /(?=l)/g,
str = "hello world";
console.log(re.lastIndex)
re.exec(str)
console.log(re.lastIndex)
re.exec(str)
console.log(re.lastIndex)
re.exec(str)
console.log(re.lastIndex)
The solution (that is less nice than matchAll(), but should work on all browsers) therefore is to manually increase the lastIndex if the match width is 0 (which may be checked in different ways)
var re = /\b/g,
str = "hello world";
while ((match = re.exec(str)) != null) {
console.log("match found at " + match.index);
// alternative: if (match.index == re.lastIndex) {
if (match[0].length == 0) {
// we need to increase lastIndex -- this location was already matched,
// we don't want to match it again (and get into an infinite loop)
re.lastIndex++
}
}
This member fn returns an array of 0-based positions, if any, of the input word inside the String object
String.prototype.matching_positions = function( _word, _case_sensitive, _whole_words, _multiline )
{
/*besides '_word' param, others are flags (0|1)*/
var _match_pattern = "g"+(_case_sensitive?"i":"")+(_multiline?"m":"") ;
var _bound = _whole_words ? "\\b" : "" ;
var _re = new RegExp( _bound+_word+_bound, _match_pattern );
var _pos = [], _chunk, _index = 0 ;
while( true )
{
_chunk = _re.exec( this ) ;
if ( _chunk == null ) break ;
_pos.push( _chunk['index'] ) ;
_re.lastIndex = _chunk['index']+1 ;
}
return _pos ;
}
Now try
var _sentence = "What do doers want ? What do doers need ?" ;
var _word = "do" ;
console.log( _sentence.matching_positions( _word, 1, 0, 0 ) );
console.log( _sentence.matching_positions( _word, 1, 1, 0 ) );
You can also input regular expressions:
var _second = "z^2+2z-1" ;
console.log( _second.matching_positions( "[0-9]\z+", 0, 0, 0 ) );
Here one gets the position index of linear term.
var str = "The rain in SPAIN stays mainly in the plain";
function searchIndex(str, searchValue, isCaseSensitive) {
var modifiers = isCaseSensitive ? 'gi' : 'g';
var regExpValue = new RegExp(searchValue, modifiers);
var matches = [];
var startIndex = 0;
var arr = str.match(regExpValue);
[].forEach.call(arr, function(element) {
startIndex = str.indexOf(element, startIndex);
matches.push(startIndex++);
});
return matches;
}
console.log(searchIndex(str, 'ain', true));
I had luck using this single-line solution based on matchAll (my use case needs an array of string positions)
let regexp = /bar/g;
let str = 'foobarfoobar';
let matchIndices = Array.from(str.matchAll(regexp)).map(x => x.index);
console.log(matchIndices)
output: [3, 9]
function trimRegex(str, regex){
return str.substr(str.match(regex).index).split('').reverse().join('').substr(str.match(regex).index).split('').reverse().join('');
}
let test = '||ab||cd||';
trimRegex(test, /[^|]/);
console.log(test); //output: ab||cd
or
function trimChar(str, trim, req){
let regex = new RegExp('[^'+trim+']');
return str.substr(str.match(regex).index).split('').reverse().join('').substr(str.match(regex).index).split('').reverse().join('');
}
let test = '||ab||cd||';
trimChar(test, '|');
console.log(test); //output: ab||cd
var str = 'my string here';
var index = str.match(/hre/).index;
alert(index); // <- 10