Javascript: find word in string

javascript substring word
Mala picture Mala · Aug 25, 2014 · Viewed 19k times · Source

Does Javascript have a built-in function to see if a word is present in a string? I'm not looking for something like indexOf(), but rather:

find_word('test', 'this is a test.') -> true
find_word('test', 'this is a test') -> true
find_word('test', 'I am testing this out') -> false
find_word('test', 'test this out please') -> true
find_word('test', 'attest to that if you would') -> false

Essentially, I'd like to know if my word appears, but not as part of another word. It wouldn't be too hard to implement manually, but I figured I'd ask to see if there's already a built-in function like this, since it seems like it'd be something that comes up a lot.

Answer

elclanrs picture elclanrs · Aug 25, 2014

You can use split and some:

function findWord(word, str) {
  return str.split(' ').some(function(w){return w === word})
}

Or use a regex with word boundaries:

function findWord(word, str) {
  return RegExp('\\b'+ word +'\\b').test(str)
}

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