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javascriptstringreplace

How do I replace all occurrences of a string in JavaScript?

Given a string:

string = "Test abc test test abc test test test abc test test abc";

This seems to only remove the first occurrence of abc in the string above:

string = string.replace('abc', '');

How do I replace all occurrences of it?

Solution

  • In the latest versions of most popular browsers, you can use replaceAll as shown here:

    let result = "1 abc 2 abc 3".replaceAll("abc", "xyz");
// `result` is "1 xyz 2 xyz 3"

    But check Can I use or another compatibility table first to make sure the browsers you're targeting have added support for it first.

    For Node.js and compatibility with older/non-current browsers:

    Note: Don't use the following solution in performance critical code.

    As an alternative to regular expressions for a simple literal string, you could use

    str = "Test abc test test abc test...".split("abc").join("");

    The general pattern is

    str.split(search).join(replacement)

    This used to be faster in some cases than using replaceAll and a regular expression, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore in modern browsers.

    Benchmark: https://jsben.ch/TZYzj

    Conclusion:

    If you have a performance-critical use case (e.g., processing hundreds of strings), use the regular expression method. But for most typical use cases, this is well worth not having to worry about special characters.