Insert a string at a specific index

Question

How can I insert a string at a specific index of another string?

 var txt1 = \"foo baz\"

Suppose I want to insert \"bar \" after the \"foo

Answer 1

Well, we can use both the substring and slice method.

String.prototype.customSplice = function (index, absIndex, string) {
    return this.slice(0, index) + string+ this.slice(index + Math.abs(absIndex));
};


String.prototype.replaceString = function (index, string) {
    if (index > 0)
        return this.substring(0, index) + string + this.substr(index);

    return string + this;
};


console.log('Hello Developers'.customSplice(6,0,'Stack ')) // Hello Stack Developers
console.log('Hello Developers'.replaceString(6,'Stack ')) //// Hello Stack Developers

The only problem of a substring method is that it won't work with a negative index. It's always take string index from 0th position.

Answer 2

Here is a method I wrote that behaves like all other programming languages:

String.prototype.insert = function(index, string) {
  if (index > 0) {
    return this.substring(0, index) + string + this.substr(index);
  }

  return string + this;
};

//Example of use:
var something = "How you?";
something = something.insert(3, " are");
console.log(something)

Reference:

• http://coderamblings.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/insert-a-string-at-a-specific-index/

Answer 3

Inserting at a specific index (rather than, say, at the first space character) has to use string slicing/substring:

var txt2 = txt1.slice(0, 3) + "bar" + txt1.slice(3);

Answer 4

You can do it easily with regexp in one line of code

const str = 'Hello RegExp!';
const index = 6;
const insert = 'Lovely ';
    
//'Hello RegExp!'.replace(/^(.{6})(.)/, `$1Lovely $2`);
const res = str.replace(new RegExp(`^(.{${index}})(.)`), `$1${insert}$2`);
    
console.log(res);

"Hello Lovely RegExp!"

Answer 5

You can use Regular Expressions with a dynamic pattern.

var text = "something";
var output = "                    ";
var pattern = new RegExp("^\\s{"+text.length+"}");
var output.replace(pattern,text);

outputs:

"something      "

This replaces text.length of whitespace characters at the beginning of the string output. The RegExp means ^\ - beginning of a line \s any white space character, repeated {n} times, in this case text.length. Use \\ to \ escape backslashes when building this kind of patterns out of strings.

Answer 6

You could prototype your own splice() into String.

Polyfill

if (!String.prototype.splice) {
    /**
     * {JSDoc}
     *
     * The splice() method changes the content of a string by removing a range of
     * characters and/or adding new characters.
     *
     * @this {String}
     * @param {number} start Index at which to start changing the string.
     * @param {number} delCount An integer indicating the number of old chars to remove.
     * @param {string} newSubStr The String that is spliced in.
     * @return {string} A new string with the spliced substring.
     */
    String.prototype.splice = function(start, delCount, newSubStr) {
        return this.slice(0, start) + newSubStr + this.slice(start + Math.abs(delCount));
    };
}

Example

String.prototype.splice = function(idx, rem, str) {
    return this.slice(0, idx) + str + this.slice(idx + Math.abs(rem));
};

var result = "foo baz".splice(4, 0, "bar ");

document.body.innerHTML = result; // "foo bar baz"

---

EDIT: Modified it to ensure that rem is an absolute value.