Replace Multiple Characters in a String using JavaScript

Replace Multiple Characters in a String #

Use the replace() method to replace multiple characters in a string, e.g. str.replace(/[._-]/g, ' '). The first parameter the method takes is a regular expression that can match multiple characters. The method returns a new string with the matches replaced by the provided replacement.

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const str = 'one.two_three-four';

const result1 = str.replace(/[._-]/g, ' ');
console.log(result1); // 👉️ "one two three four"

// ✅️ without regular expressions
const result2 = str
  .replaceAll('.', '?')
  .replaceAll('_', '?')
  .replaceAll('-', '?');

console.log(result2); // 👉️ "one?two?three?four"

We passed the following 2 arguments to the String.replace method:

1. a regular expression we want to match in the string
2. the replacement for each match

The forward slashes / / mark the beginning and end of the regular expression.

In the first example, we match a dot, an underscore and a hyphen.

You can adjust the regular expression according to your use case by updating the characters between the square brackets and the replacement string.

In the first example, we replaced each occurrence of a dot, an underscore or a hyphen with a space.

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const str = 'one.two_three-four';

const result1 = str.replace(/[._-]/g, ' ');
console.log(result1); // 👉️ "one two three four"

If you ever need help reading a regular expression, check out this regex cheatsheet from MDN.

Alternatively, you can use the String.replaceAll method.

Replace Multiple Characters in a String using replaceAll #

To replace multiple characters in a string, chain multiple calls to the replaceAll() method, e.g. str.replaceAll('.', '!').replaceAll('_', '!'). The replaceAll method will return a new string, where all occurrences of the characters are replaced by the provided replacement.

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const str = 'one.two_three-four';

// 👇️ without regular expressions
const result2 = str
  .replaceAll('.', '?')
  .replaceAll('_', '?')
  .replaceAll('-', '?');

console.log(result2); // 👉️ "one?two?three?four"

We passed the following 2 arguments to the replaceAll method:

1. A substring we want to replace in the string
2. The replacement for each match

The difference in performance is most likely negligible, unless you're working with a string that's tens of thousands of characters long.

An alternative, but also very common approach you might see is using a pipe | character, which serves as an or in regular expressions.

Here's an example that replaces each whitespace, underscore or exclamation mark with a question mark.

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const str = 'one two_three!four';
const result3 = str.replace(/\s|_|!/g, '?');

console.log(result3); // 👉️ "one?two?three?four"

The \s special character matches a whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines).

The pipe | allows us to match either one of the characters in the regex.