How to use :contains(text) with any text with jQuery

Question

With jQuery, one can use:

$(":contains(hello)")

It will return any matching element that contains the text "hello".

I want to be able to match any text, especially "hello :)".

$(":contains(hello :))") // Doesn't work
$(":contains('hello :)')") // Doesn't work
$(":contains('hello :\)')") // Doesn't work

How do I find elements that contains "hello :)" with jQuery ?

Answer 1

See this answer for how.

It basically involves .filter to get around a known :contains bug:

$('#demo').filter(function(i, el) {
    return !!$(el).text().match(/hello :\)/);
});

Live example.

Note that performing .length on the result of this may give you a value greater than 1 even if only one element contains that text, because the element's parents will also match.