Why doesn't my String have a replaceAll() function?

Question

Sometimes I have a script that calls replaceAll() on my string variable, but it only works some of the time.  Why would it only work some of the time?

Answer 1

This is probably a Java String vs Javascript String problem.  Java Strings have a replaceAll() method, but Javascript Strings do not.

You can force/cast your string so it is a Javascript string and then do a global replace:

str = '' + str;
str.replace(/foo/g, "bar");

OR

You can force/cast your string so it is a Java String and then do a replaceAll:

str = new java.lang.String(str);
str.replaceAll("foo", "bar");

Comments

It is worth mentioning that these methods above can use regular expressions.  If regular expressions are not needed, you can also use StringUtils.replace();