[RESOLVED] Possible to search for two words with RegExp

This is not my code - but appears to be how a jQuery autocomplete can fill the array that shows when you start typing.

Code:

---

var matcher = new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(wesInput.val().toLowerCase()), "i");
var arraytoreturn = $.grep(wesInput.autocomplete("option", "source"), function(value) {
    return matcher.test(value.label || value.value || value);
});

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So - if I have

SMITH, ANN
SMITH, JOHN
SMITH, JOHN AND AMY
SMITH, JOSEPH
SMITH, JOSEPH AND ANN

And I type SMITH, JOS

I currently get

SMITH, JOSEPH
SMITH, JOSEPH AND ANN

So I guess that means that the "standard no regexp escape sequences" means "find the data with left-most matching" - GENERIC as we called it back in the mainframe days.

What could I type that would tell the MATCHER.TEST function to return these two records (if it was a simple world it would be something like SMITH*ANN)

SMITH, ANN
SMITH, JOSEPH AND ANN

Really? A whole week goes by and no one has an any ideas?

Do I have to split up the two words myself and code some kind of two pass search?

no idea means two thing : its impossible OR who knows
and no you cant do that as far as i know , what do you mean by two pass search anyway ? as you said this piece of code will do find the data with left-most matching and thats all but you can say when you reach to "," stop and use another box for last name search ( guess that means two pass search ) :D

likeIf I was doing it in SQL it would be something like:

Where PersonName like 'SMITH%ANN%'

I assumed REGEXP could easily do something similar...

Actually I just discovered that this does work

(?=.*smith)(?=.*ann)

This line of code

var matcher = new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(term), "i");

was messing up the process by ESCAPING the ('s and )'s and such.

I started with typing (SMITH|ANN) - which got escaped into \(SMITH\|ANN\) - I guess so you could literally search for those REGEX-type characters.

I changed it to var matcher = new RegExp(term, "i"); and now I can type real REGEX type search factors (if I actually wanted to).

Of course having the user type (?=.*smith)(?=.*ann) is way too complicated - but I can have them enter SMITH*ANN and I can detect the "*" character and I can change that into a real REGEX search factor.

So - I ended up writing my own makeRegex function.

Here's the final code

Code:

---

            $.extend($.ui.autocomplete, {
                escapeRegex: function(value) {
                    return value.replace(/[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, "\\$&");
                },
                filter: function(array, term) {
                    var matcher = makeRegex(term); //new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(term), "i");
                    var arraytoreturn = $.grep(array, function(value) {
                        return matcher.test(value.label || value.value || value);
                    });
                    if (arraytoreturn.length > 200) {
                        arraytoreturn = [{ label: "Please be more specific - " + arraytoreturn.length + " matching entries!", value: ""}];
                    }
                    return arraytoreturn;
                }
            });

---

You can see the escapeRegex function that was in place.

The makeRegex function looks like this

Code:

---

        function makeRegex(term) {
            var arrTerms = term.split(" ");
            var strTerms = "";
            if (arrTerms.length > 1) {
                for (var i = 0; i < arrTerms.length; i++) {
                    arrTerms[i] = "(?=.*" + arrTerms[i] + ")";
                }
                strTerms = arrTerms.join("");
            } else {
                strTerms = $.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(term);
            }
            var regexMatcher = new RegExp(strTerms, "i");
            return regexMatcher;
        }

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It might be too late now, but I was going to suggest looking at http://xregexp.com/ to see if that had anything useful.