replace all irregular expressions

Question

I would like to know how to replace an irregular expression in javascript.I have tried what I have read on stackoverflow but its not working yet. I would like to replace all + with spaces.Here is my code

<script>
String.prototype.replaceAll = function(find,replace){
    var str= this;
    return.replace(new RegExp(find.replace(/[-\/\\^$*?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&'),'g'), replace); };

$(document).ready(function(){
    $('#myform').submit(function(){ 
        var selectedItemsText = '';
        $(this).find('input[type="checkbox"]:checked').each(function(){
            selectedItemsText += $(this).val() + '\r';

        });
            selectedItemsText=selectedItemsText.replaceAll('+',' ');

         if (confirm("Are you sure you would like to exclude these folders(s)?"+selectedItemsText))
        {
            $.ajax({
                type:"POST",
                url:catalog2.php,
                data:$('#chk[]').val(),



                   });      
            }           

            return false;
    });
});

</script>

Take a look at the syntax error in the console that will happen when defining `replaceAll` — David Sherret, Jul 10 '15 at 16:11
Can you define "not working", and perhaps reduce your code to a [minimal example](http://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve)? — James Thorpe, Jul 10 '15 at 16:11
You seem to be using a modified version of [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/14822579/1529630). Just use the original one. — Oriol, Jul 10 '15 at 16:35

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 10 '15 at 16:12

Actually you can use a better solution:

var rep = str.replace(/\+/g, " ");

Remember you need to escape the + as it is a reserved word. For an explanation:

/\+/g
  \+ matches the character + literally
  g modifier: global. All matches (don't return on first match)

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

According to What special characters must be escaped in regular expressions?, you should escape .^$*+?()[{\| outside character classes and ^-]\ inside them

That is,

String.prototype.replaceAll = function(find, replace) {
  return this.replace(
    new RegExp(
      find.replace(/[.^$*+?()[{\\|^\]-]/g, '\\$&'),
      'g'
    ),
    replace
  );
};
'a+b'.replaceAll('+', ' '); // "a b"

However, consider the shorter

String.prototype.replaceAll = function(find, replace) {
  return this.split(find).join(replace);
};
'a+b'.replaceAll('+', ' '); // "a b"

replace all irregular expressions

2 Answers2