JavaScript/jQuery - How to check if a string contain specific words

$a = 'how are you';

if (strpos($a,'are') !== false) {
    echo 'true';
}

In PHP, we can use the code above to check if a string contain specific words, but how can I do the same function in JavaScript/jQuery?

Answer

If you are looking for exact words and don't want it to match things like "nightmare" (which is probably what you need), you can use a regex:

/\bare\b/gi


\b = word boundary
g = global
i = case insensitive (if needed)

If you just want to find the characters "are", then use indexOf.

If you want to match arbitrary words, you have to programatically construct a RegExp (regular expression) object itself based on the word string and use test.