[Javascript] Wildcard string matching / globbing, Take 2.

Okay, I'm convinced: you just can't beat regular expressions. (Okay, SNOBOL4's pattern matching is streets ahead, but there's nothing out there like that for Javascript, AFAIK.)

I've reworked the matchesWild function, caling it grepWild. It takes the wildCard parameter as before but instead of all the substr stuff, it replaces '?' with '.', '*' with '.*' and wraps with '^' and '$'. Then it feeds that into match().

It's simpler, easier on the eyes, and faster too.

String.prototype.grepWild = function( wildCard ) {
        var pattern = '^';
        for (var i = 0; i < wildCard.length; i++ ) {
                var c = wildCard.charAt(i);
                switch (c) {
                        case '?':
                                pattern += '.';
                                break;
                        case '*':
                                pattern += '.*';
                                break;
                        default:
                                pattern += c;
                }
        }
        pattern += '$';
        return ( this.match( pattern ) != null );
}

© Bruce M. Axtens, 2010