How would I trim the input to a JQuery auto-complete box?

Question

Is there any way to trim (remove leading/trailing spaces) the input entered by a user into a jQuery auto-completing text box before it is matched

Answer 1

Use jQuery.trim:

jQuery.trim(yourValue);

Answer 2

You can do the find yourself in the source function, instead of using the built-in function, like this:

source: function( request, response ) {
  var matcher = new RegExp($.trim(request.term).replace(/[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, "\\$&"), "i" );
  response($.grep(resources, function(value) {
    return matcher.test( value.label || value.value || value );
  }));
}

You can try a demo here. This uses $.trim() to trim down the search term before it gets passed into $.grep() to get the leading/trailing white-space ignorant effect you want.

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For your edit, you can do this, but the "No Result..." will be selectable, give it a try here:

source: function( request, response ) {
  var matcher = new RegExp($.trim(request.term).replace(/[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, "\\$&"), "i" );
  var matches = $.grep(resources, function(value) {
    return matcher.test( value.label || value.value || value );
  });
  response(matches.length ? matches : [{ label: 'No Result Found', value: '' }]);
}