regex whole word (jQuery DataTables search)

Question

I'm using DataTables (http://www.datatables.net/) to generate a table. Each row has a corporation name, which in most cases is the state, province, or country name. I use chosen.js to generate a multi-select with all of the unique names. The problem is that when I'm searching for "Virginia" I'm also getting results for "West Virginia". I only want "Virginia".

For each option selected in the multi-select, I append it to a regex, e.g.:

\b(Arizona|Virginia)\b

My data table contains rows with the following:

<tr><td>Arizona</td></tr>
<tr><td>Michigan</td></tr>
<tr><td>Virginia</td></tr>
<tr><td>West Virginia</td></tr>
....

What does my regular expression need to be so "Virginia" returns only "Virginia" and not "West Virginia"?

I'm using the DataTables column search (with smart searching off) to execute the regex: https://datatables.net/reference/api/column().search()

try anchors ^(Arizona|Virginia)$

Avinash Raj
– Avinash Raj

2015-04-13 14:36:44 +00:00
Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 14:36 — Avinash Raj
– Avinash Raj, Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 14:36
And why you parse this with regex?

Avinash Raj
– Avinash Raj

2015-04-13 14:37:35 +00:00
Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 14:37 — Avinash Raj
– Avinash Raj, Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 14:37

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-13 14:36:41Z

2

You should use <td> tag as boundaries (if they are part of the string that goes into the regex engine) and only use captured group 1:

 <td>(Arizona|Virginia)</td>

If the string comes in as plain Arizona, or West Virginia, you can use anchors matching at the beginning ^ or end $ of the string:

 ^(Arizona|Virginia)$

answered Apr 13, 2015 at 14:36

Wiktor Stribiżew

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3 Comments

Brian Kates Over a year ago

Thanks! Worked like a charm! +1

Brian Kates Over a year ago

Done. Apparently you need to wait 10 minute to accept.

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

Yes, there is this 10-minute delay to allow for better answers.

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