248062 - Add RegExp.escapeAsLiteralString (method on the constructor, not the objects it constructs)

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: JavaScript Engine, enhancement)

Description

[timeless]

i have a 'simple' regexp task:

> i have a string (str)
> and it wants to be used in a replace function
> input.replace (magicfunction(str)+".*", "")
> problem is, str is something like '?'
> so it needs to be escaped :)

<shaver> if you're writing your own magicfunction, put together a set of
regexes that match the different characters you want to escape, and then
apply them in sequence
<shaver> [ [ /\\/, "\\\\" ], [/\?/, "\\?"], ... ]
<shaver> though you should toss a /g suffix on there as well
<shaver> but the better thing to do is have someone add RegExp.escapeAsLiteralString

The function RegExp.escapeAsLiteralString would of course return a string.

Comment 1

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

Mass abdication.

Comment 2

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

I'm not sure why I didn't suggest

str.replace(/[\\\?.:etc:]/g, "\\\1")

or an equivalent, rather than many regexen?

Comment 3

[Jordan Osete]

I would like to support this request.
Although I think maybe a simpler name for the method would be best (why not just RegExp.escape ? Possible conflict with an user-defined method ? Is this really worth it ?)
Also, it would be nice to have feedback from other implementors on this, the chosen solution should be implementable in a cross-browser way.
Should the ECMA or the WHATWG handle this kind of request instead ?

Comment 4

[Tom S. (please needinfo tschuster)]

Please ask Ecmascript if you are still interested.