Finding Substrings in a String with JavaScript Arrays

To determine if a string contains any of the substrings from an array, JavaScript provides flexible approaches.

Array Some Method

The some method iterates over an array, providing a callback function to test each element. To check for substrings, use the indexOf() method to search for each array element within the string:

if (substrings.some(function(v) { return str.indexOf(v) >= 0; })) {
    // There's at least one substring match
}

Regular Expression

Regular expressions offer a powerful way to match text patterns. To search for any substring in the array within the string, create a regex with all substrings as alternate options and use the test() method:

const regex = new RegExp(substrings.join("|"));
if (regex.test(str)) {
    // At least one substring matches
}

Example

Let's consider an array of substrings:

const substrings = ["one", "two", "three"];

String with Substring Match

const str = "This string includes \"one\".";

// Using array some method
const someMethodMatch = substrings.some(v => str.includes(v));

// Using regular expression
const regexMatch = str.match(new RegExp(substrings.join("|")));

String without Substring Match

const str = "This string doesn't have any substrings.";

// Using array some method
const someMethodNoMatch = substrings.some(v => str.includes(v));

// Using regular expression
const regexNoMatch = str.match(new RegExp(substrings.join("|")));

Results