regular expression from variable

[Martin John Brindle]

I need to build a regular expression where the expression contents are
variable.

for example I have a string that i need to search for, but the string can
change. If i have a variable called string I need to look at the contents of
string otherwise

/string/

obviously doesn't work!

Suggestions appreciated.

Martin

[RobG]

Martin John Brindle wrote:

I need to build a regular expression where the expression contents are
variable.

for example I have a string that i need to search for, but the string can
change. If i have a variable called string I need to look at the contents of
string otherwise

/string/

obviously doesn't work!

Suggestions appreciated.

function searchFor( s, str ) {
var re = new RegExp( s );
return re.test( str );
}

will return true for: searchFor( 'be', 'beach')

To match a word exactly, use:

var re = new RegExp( '\\b' + s + '\\b' );

Now:

searchFor( 'be', 'let it be') // returns true
searchFor( 'be', 'beat it') // returns false

To make the test case insensitive:

var re = new RegExp( '\\b' + s + '\\b', 'i' );

etc.

--
Rob