Match and replace whole words in javascript

Question

I have a textarea, and when I write, for example, "want", I want to replace it with "two".

How can I match and replace whole words in javascript?

Answer 1

You can use the word boundary \\b , so \\bwant\\b . Do keep in mind that the regex definition of a word may not suit you, though. Javascript regex defines word boundaries as the place between a word character \\w , which is [a-zA-Z0-9_] and a non-word character (everything except that).

References

• regular-expressions.info/Word boundaries

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Examples of word boundary caveats

• There's a \\bcan\\b in "can't" (because ' is not a \\w )
• There's no \\blove\\b in "love_me" (because e and _ are both \\w )