JavaScript Search within String using the search() and match() method
In Javascript, filtering and searching methods are often used to display desired output to the user or to search from string and then match them to a searched string. In real projects, we use them in searching through rows in a table which will return us rows that have matched our given search string.
In this post let us look at examples of matching patterns in a string.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Simple Search
- Search which returns matched words using string match() method
- Conclusion
Introduction
Javascript provides string methods for searching and matching strings these methods can take strings to be searched as parameters or regular expressions can be used for retrieving more results.
Let us look at examples using string methods .search()
and .match()
.
Simple Search
search()
the method returns the position of string match to the given pattern.
let sentence = "If you wait too long for the perfect moment, the perfect moment will pass you by"; sentence = `/${sentence}/gmi`; let search_pattern = "will pass"; let search_result = sentence.search(search_pattern); if(search_result>=0){ console.log("Searched Pattern is found at position : "+search_result); }else{ console.log("Searched Pattern not found."); } //Console Output Searched Pattern is found at position : 65

Javascript Search word in a string and get its position
In the above example sentence
is a string and search_pattern
is the pattern we are searching inside a string.
In this example, we are using regular expressions. The variable search_result
returns the first position of matched pattern encountered.
Search which returns matched words using string match() method
Suppose in cases where we want to return all those matched patterns then it is possible using string.match()
method.
let sentence = "If you wait too long for the perfect moment, the perfect moment will pass you by"; let pattern = /the/gi; let result = sentence.match(pattern); console.log(result); //Console Output (2) ["the", "the"]

Javascript search string using match() method
Variable pattern
which searches for a word this
in string sentence
returns the matched output.
And what if we need to search for multiple patterns in variable sentence
then we use the vertical line |
which is an or operator.
let pattern = /the|wait/gi; //with multiple words match let sentence = "If you wait too long for the perfect moment, the perfect moment will pass you by"; let result = sentence.match(pattern); console.log(result); //Console Output (3) ["wait", "the", "the"]

Javascript multiple words searching and display in an array.
Conclusion
We have come to the end of our post on JavaScript Search within String using the search() and match() method. If you like our content then please do share it and comment to clarify your doubts.
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