I'm trying to create a regex search in Datatables which matches a user who belongs to all selected groups.
Example:
User A belongs to Users, Other, Other Users
User B belongs to Users, Other
If Users and Other Users are selected as filters, only user A should show in the table. The problem I'm having is that both users are showing when these filters are selected. I don't think the regex is matching exact strings and, after looking through multiple other answers, I don't seem to be able to get it to do so.
My solution:
if (!this.items.length) {
table.column(i).search('');
} else {
let regex = '^';
this.items.forEach(v => regex += `(?=.*\\b${v}\\b)`);
regex += '.*$'
table.column(i).search(regex, true, false, true)
}
Which results in: ^(?=.*\bUsers\b)(?=.*\bOther Users\b).*$
However, the user belonging to Users,Other is still being returned.
You can enforce a comma or start/end of string check before and after each of your search term:
this.items.forEach(v => regex += "(?=.*(?:[^,]|^)${v}(?![^,]))");
Or, if the JavaScript environment supports lookbehinds:
this.items.forEach(v => regex += "(?=.*(?<![^,])${v}(?![^,]))");
The (?:[^,]|^) / (?<![^,]) (equal to (?<=,|^)) part requires start of string position or a comma right before your search term and the (?![^,]) negative lookahead requires a comma or end of string immediately to the right of the current position ((?![^,]) is equal to (?=,|$) positive lookahead).