How to compare strings in javascript ignoring special characters

Question

I'm developing an app and I've been asked to compare strings, but text in string have special characters (spanish accents like "á", "é", "í", "ó" and "ú")

I already manage capitalization with toUpperCase(), but still, I want to be sure that I have no problem with accents.

What I have to do is to compare some words already saved in system and check if used typed any of them.

What I do is store the typed words in an array, and then proceed to analyze them in another function (yet to be implemented)

This is my function where I store the words the user types (it may change to make it more complete):

function clickNewWord(){
    var theWord = textField.value.toUpperCase();
    ArrayWrittenWords.push(theWord);
    textField.value = "";
}

PD: I'll take the opportunity to ask: What would be the correct coding to work with accents? UTF-8?

When you say you want to "ignore" the accents, what do you mean? Do you mean that ole would match òle? — unobf
– unobf, Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 18:07
Take a look at this link: stackoverflow.com/questions/5700636/… — Inanda Menezes
– Inanda Menezes, Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 18:30

Ekeuwei · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-17 07:53:55Z

11

Although its an old question however, for the sake of future googlers here is the best way to remove accent from a string:

var string = 'á é í ó ú';
string.normalize('NFD').replace(/[\u0300-\u036f]/g, '');
>a e i o u

edited Dec 17, 2020 at 7:53

answered Sep 25, 2019 at 15:16

Ekeuwei

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Mouhamad Kawas · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-09 18:17:00Z

3

You can convert them and then match them, let me if my example is clear :)

var stringInTheSystem = ['aaaa','bbbb'];// Array of string in your system;

var term = 'áaaa';// the word you want to compare it; 
term = term.replace(/á/g, "a"); 
term = term.replace(/é/g, "e"); 
term = term.replace(/í/g, "i"); 
term = term.replace(/ó/g, "o"); 
term = term.replace(/ú/g, "u"); 
var matcher = new RegExp( term, "i" );
$.grep( stringInTheSystem, function( value ) {
                  value = value.test || value.value || value;
                    console.log(matcher.test( value ));
});

answered Jan 9, 2015 at 18:17

Mouhamad Kawas

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3 Comments

Mouhamad Kawas Over a year ago

Yes you shoud UpperCase all strings and then use this code

Sascuash Over a year ago

Hey, while this code works fine when text with accents is in code, but when I have to read it from textarea with "textField.value.toUpperCase();" it doesn't work. Why is this happennig?

Sascuash Over a year ago

Please, as I told you in my last comment, I found other issue and I'd like to solve it without asking a new question (as you can see I only work in this project on fridays)

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