Short 'n Sweet (Updated 2021)

Short 'n Sweet

function escapeRegExp(string) { return string.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, '\\$&'); // $& means the whole matched string } 

Example

escapeRegExp("All of these should be escaped: \ ^ $ * + ? . ( ) | { } [ ]"); >>> "All of these should be escaped: \\ \^ \$ \* \+ \? \. \( \) \| \{ \} \[ \] " 

Short 'n Sweet (Updated 2021)

To escape the RegExp itself:

function escapeRegExp(string) { return string.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, '\\$&'); // $& means the whole matched string } 

To escape a replacement string:

function escapeReplacement(string) { return string.replace(/\$/g, '$$$$'); } 

Example

All escaped RegExp characters:

escapeRegExp("All of these should be escaped: \ ^ $ * + ? . ( ) | { } [ ]"); 

>>> "All of these should be escaped: \\ \^ \$ \* \+ \? \. \( \) \| \{ \} \[ \] " 

Find & replace a string:

var haystack = "I love $x!"; var needle = "$x"; var safeNeedle = escapeRegExp(needle); // "\\$x" var replacement = "$100 bills" var safeReplacement = escapeReplacement(replacement); // "$$100 bills" haystack.replace( new RegExp(safeNeedle, 'g'), escapeReplacement(safeReplacement), ); // "I love $100 bills!" 

Install

(NOTE: the above is not the original answer; it was edited to show the one from MDN. This means it does not match what you will find in the code in the below npm, and does not match what is shown in the below long answer. The comments are also now confusing. My recommendation: use the above, or get it from MDN, and ignore the rest of this answer. -Darren,Nov 2019)

Install