react-string-replace

React String Replace

A simple way to safely do string replacement with React components. Zero dependencies.

Aka turn a string into an array of React components

Install

npm install react-string-replace
# or
yarn add react-string-replace
# or
bun add react-string-replace

Usage

First, import the lib. Both require and import are supported.

import reactStringReplace from "react-string-replace";
// OR
const reactStringReplace = require("react-string-replace");

Examples will use import since it is more common in the React ecosystem.

Simple Example

import reactStringReplace from 'react-string-replace';

reactStringReplace('whats your name', 'your', (match, i) => (
  <span>{match}</span>
));
// => [ 'whats ', <span>your</span>, ' name' ]

More realistic example

Highlight all digits within a string by surrounding them in span tags:

reactStringReplace("Apt 111, phone number 5555555555.", /(\d+)/g, (match, i) => (
  <span key={i} style={{ color: "red" }}>
    {match}
  </span>
));
// =>
// [
//   'Apt ',
//   <span style={{ color: 'red' }}>111</span>,
//   ', phone number ',
//   <span style={{ color: 'red' }}>5555555555</span>,
//   '.'
// ]

Within a React component

import reactStringReplace from "react-string-replace";

function HighlightNumbers() {
  const content = "Hey my number is 555-555-5555.";
  return (
    <div>
      {reactStringReplace(content, /(\d+)/g, (match, i) => (
        <span key={i} style={{ color: "red" }}>
          {match}
        </span>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

Multiple replacements on a single string

You can run multiple replacements on one string by calling the function multiple times on the returned result. For instance, if we want to match URLs, @-mentions and hashtags in a string we could do the following:

import reactStringReplace from "react-string-replace";

const text =
  "Hey @ian_sinn, check out this link https://github.com/iansinnott/ Hope to see you at #reactconf";
let replacedText;

// Match URLs
replacedText = reactStringReplace(text, /(https?:\/\/\S+)/g, (match, i) => (
  <a key={match + i} href={match}>
    {match}
  </a>
));

// Match @-mentions
replacedText = reactStringReplace(replacedText, /@(\w+)/g, (match, i) => (
  <a key={match + i} href={`https://twitter.com/${match}`}>
    @{match}
  </a>
));

// Match hashtags
replacedText = reactStringReplace(replacedText, /#(\w+)/g, (match, i) => (
  <a key={match + i} href={`https://twitter.com/hashtag/${match}`}>
    #{match}
  </a>
));

// => [
//   'Hey ',
//   <a href='https://twitter.com/ian_sinn'>@ian_sinn</a>
//   ', check out this link ',
//   <a href='https://github.com/iansinnott/'>https://github.com/iansinnott/</a>,
//   '. Hope to see you at ',
//   <a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/reactconf'>#reactconf</a>,
//   '',
// ];

Full Example

See the example/ directory for a runnable example.

Why?

I wanted an easy way to do string replacement similar to String.prototype.replace within React components without breaking React's built in string escaping and XSS protection. This meant standard string replacement combined with dangerouslySetInnerHTML was out of the question.

API

reactStringReplace(string, match, replacementFunction, count)

string

Type: string|array

The string or array you would like to do replacement on.

NOTE: When passed an array this is the same as running the replacement on every string within the array. Any non-string values in the array will be left untouched.

match

Type: regexp|string

The string or RegExp you would like to replace within string.

NOTE: When using a RegExp you MUST include a capturing group. (/(hey)/g is ok, /hey/g is not.)

Example: Replace all occurrences of 'hey' with <span>hey</span>

reactStringReplace("hey hey you", /(hey)/g, () => <span>hey</span>);

replacementFunction

Type: function

The replacer function to run each time match is found. This function will be passed the matching string and an index which can be used for adding keys to replacement components if necessary. Character offset identifies the position of match start in the provided text.

const replacementFunction = (match, index, offset) => <span key={index}>{match}</span>;
reactStringReplace("hey hey you", /(hey)/g, replacementFunction);

count

Type: number

The number of substitutions to perform - for example if count is 1, then only the first occurrence of the string will be replaced.

Example: Replace first occurrence of 'hey' with <span>hey</span>

reactStringReplace("hey hey you", "hey", () => <span>hey</span>, 1);

API Stability

The API is stable and production ready.

v2.0.0 Breaking Change: The index parameter passed to the replacement function now starts at 0 and increments by 1 (previously it started at 1 and incremented by 2).

For details on API tests see the tests file.

License

MIT © Ian Sinnott

Similar packages

Other packages similar to react-string-replace

react-replace

react-replace is a similar package that allows you to replace parts of a string with React components. It offers a straightforward API for performing replacements, but it may not be as flexible as react-string-replace in terms of handling complex replacement logic.

react-text-replace

react-text-replace is another alternative that focuses on replacing text within strings with React components. It provides a simple API and is easy to use, but it may lack some of the advanced features offered by react-string-replace.