I want to check if a string (let entry) contains exact match with let expect:

let expect = 'i was sent'
let entry = 'i was sente to earth' // should return false
// let entry = 'to earth i was sent' should return true

// includes() using the first instance of the entry returns true
if(entry.includes(expect)){
console.log('exact match')

} else {
console.log('no matches')

}

I want to check if a string (let entry) contains exact match with let expect:

let expect = 'i was sent'
let entry = 'i was sente to earth' // should return false
// let entry = 'to earth i was sent' should return true

// includes() using the first instance of the entry returns true
if(entry.includes(expect)){
console.log('exact match')

} else {
console.log('no matches')

}

There are lots of answers on StackOverflow but I can't find a working solution.

Note:

let expect = 'i was sent' 
let entry = 'to earth i was sent'

should return true

let expect = 'i was sent' 
let entry = 'i was sente to earth'

should return false

• javascript

• Do you want to see if it contains or is an exact match? – King11 Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 19:08
• stackoverflow./a/447258/5132337 It gives the correct answer. – Siraj Alam Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 19:08
• let expect = 'i was sent' let entry = 'i was sent e to earth' // should return false or true – Charlie Wallace Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 19:09
• 1 um so entry === expect? – epascarello Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 19:09
• 1 @foxer does "exact match" mean what it says, or would it just containing that string e back true also? I'm a bit confused....do you want to actually match a string exactly, or are you looking for the regex to identify that specific string somewhere in the string being passed as the arg? – Chris W. Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 19:12

2 Answers 2

Seems like you're talking about matching word boundary, which can be acplished using \b assertion in RegExp which matches word boundary, so there you go:

const escapeRegExpMatch = function(s) {
    return s.replace(/[-\/\\^$*+?.()|[\]{}]/g, '\\$&');
};
const isExactMatch = (str, match) => {
  return new RegExp(`\\b${escapeRegExpMatch(match)}\\b`).test(str)
}

const expect = 'i was sent'

console.log(isExactMatch('i was sente to earth', expect)) // <~ false
console.log(isExactMatch('to earth i was sent', expect)) // <~ true

I have not tested this but you need to convert the expected to an array of strings and then check if all items are in the entry string.

let arr = expect.split(" ");
if (arr.every(item => entry.includes(item)) {
  console.log("match");
}
else.....