Insert text before and after the selected text with jQuery

Question

I want to put some specified text (where possible) before and after any selected text in an HTML document.

I think there should be a smart way to do that with jQuery. Is there anyway to insert specific text before and after selected text anywhere in the document using jQuery?

Answer 1

Well, here's one way to do it (though I suspect there are more concise, efficient and, honestly, better ways of doing it):

var needle = 'ipsum';
var wrappingText = ' wrapper ';

$('p').each(
    function(){
        var haystack = $(this).text();
        $(this).text(haystack.replace(needle, wrappingText + needle + wrappingText));
    });

This, obviously, relies upon the text being contained within a p element, but that's easily amended to any other particular element, or class of element.

JS Fiddle demo

And here's a way of wrapping the needle with html (though, again, it's probably not the prettiest way):

html:

<form action="" method="post">
    <fieldset>
        <label for="needle">Search for this text: </label>
        <input type="text" name="needle" id="needle" placeholder="Example: 'sit'" />
    </fieldset>
    <fieldset>
        <label for="wrapper">Wrap with this:</label>
        <input id="wrapper" name="wrapper" type="text" placeholder="Example: <em>" />
    </fieldset>
    <fieldset id="choose">
        <input type="radio" name="wrapWith" id="text" value="0" checked /><label for="html">Text</label>
        <input type="radio" name="wrapWith" id="html" value="1" /><label for="html">HTML</label>
    </fieldset>
    <fieldset>
        <input type="submit" value="search" />
    </fieldset>
</form>

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</p>

jQuery:

$('form').submit(
    function(){
        var needle, wrapper, haystack;
        if ($('#needle').val().length >= 1) {
          needle = $('#needle').val();  
        }
        else {
            needle = 'ipsum';
        }

        if ($('#wrapper').val().length >= 1) {
            wrapper = $('#wrapper').val();
        }
        else {
            wrapper = 'wrap';
        }

        var wrappingText = 'wrapper';
        $('p').each(
            function(){
                if ($('#text').is(':checked')) {
                    haystack = $(this).text();
                    $(this).text(haystack.replace(needle, wrapper + needle + wrapper));
                }
                else if ($('#html').is(':checked')) {
                    haystack = $(this).text();
                    $(this).html(haystack.replace(needle, wrapper + needle + wrapper.replace('<', '</')));
                }
            });
        return false;
    });

JS Fiddle demo.