Javascript – How to check whether a string contains a substring in JavaScript

javascriptstringstring-matchingsubstring

Usually I would expect a String.contains() method, but there doesn't seem to be one.

What is a reasonable way to check for this?

Best Answer

ECMAScript 6 introduced String.prototype.includes:

const string = "foo";
const substring = "oo";

console.log(string.includes(substring)); // true

includes doesn’t have Internet Explorer support, though. In ECMAScript 5 or older environments, use String.prototype.indexOf, which returns -1 when a substring cannot be found:

var string = "foo";
var substring = "oo";

console.log(string.indexOf(substring) !== -1); // true

Related Solutions

Bash – How to check if a string contains a substring in Bash

You can use Marcus's answer (* wildcards) outside a case statement, too, if you use double brackets:

string='My long string'
if [[ $string == *"My long"* ]]; then
  echo "It's there!"
fi

Note that spaces in the needle string need to be placed between double quotes, and the * wildcards should be outside. Also note that a simple comparison operator is used (i.e. ==), not the regex operator =~.

Javascript – How to check if an array includes a value in JavaScript

Modern browsers have Array#includes, which does exactly that and is widely supported by everyone except IE:

console.log(['joe', 'jane', 'mary'].includes('jane')); //true

You can also use Array#indexOf, which is less direct, but doesn't require polyfills for outdated browsers.

console.log(['joe', 'jane', 'mary'].indexOf('jane') >= 0); //true

Many frameworks also offer similar methods:

jQuery: $.inArray(value, array, [fromIndex])
Underscore.js: _.contains(array, value) (also aliased as _.include and _.includes)
Dojo Toolkit: dojo.indexOf(array, value, [fromIndex, findLast])
Prototype: array.indexOf(value)
MooTools: array.indexOf(value)
MochiKit: findValue(array, value)
MS Ajax: array.indexOf(value)
Ext: Ext.Array.contains(array, value)
Lodash: _.includes(array, value, [from]) (is _.contains prior 4.0.0)
Ramda: R.includes(value, array)

Notice that some frameworks implement this as a function, while others add the function to the array prototype.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash – How to check if a string contains a substring in Bash

Javascript – How to check if an array includes a value in JavaScript

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