Replace multiple strings with multiple other strings
Specific Solution
You can use a function to replace each one.
var str = "I have a cat, a dog, and a goat.";
var mapObj = {
cat:"dog",
dog:"goat",
goat:"cat"
};
str = str.replace(/cat|dog|goat/gi, function(matched){
return mapObj[matched];
});
jsfiddle example
Generalizing it
If you want to dynamically maintain the regex and just add future exchanges to the map, you can do this
new RegExp(Object.keys(mapObj).join("|"),"gi");
to generate the regex. So then it would look like this
var mapObj = {cat:"dog",dog:"goat",goat:"cat"};
var re = new RegExp(Object.keys(mapObj).join("|"),"gi");
str = str.replace(re, function(matched){
return mapObj[matched];
});
And to add or change any more replacements you could just edit the map.
fiddle with dynamic regex
Making it Reusable
If you want this to be a general pattern you could pull this out to a function like this
function replaceAll(str,mapObj){
var re = new RegExp(Object.keys(mapObj).join("|"),"gi");
return str.replace(re, function(matched){
return mapObj[matched.toLowerCase()];
});
}
So then you could just pass the str and a map of the replacements you want to the function and it would return the transformed string.
fiddle with function
To ensure Object.keys works in older browsers, add a polyfill eg from MDN or Es5.
As an answer to:
looking for an up-to-date answer
If you are using "words" as in your current example, you might extend the answer of Ben McCormick using a non capture group and add word boundaries \b
at the left and at the right to prevent partial matches.
\b(?:cathy|cat|catch)\b
\b
A word boundary to prevent a partial match(?:
Non capture groupcathy|cat|catch
match one of the alternatives
)
Close non capture group\b
A word boundary to prevent a partial match
Example for the original question:
let str = "I have a cat, a dog, and a goat.";
const mapObj = {
cat: "dog",
dog: "goat",
goat: "cat"
};
str = str.replace(/\b(?:cat|dog|goat)\b/gi, matched => mapObj[matched]);
console.log(str);
Example for the example in the comments that not seems to be working well:
let str = "I have a cat, a catch, and a cathy.";
const mapObj = {
cathy: "cat",
cat: "catch",
catch: "cathy"
};
str = str.replace(/\b(?:cathy|cat|catch)\b/gi, matched => mapObj[matched]);
console.log(str);