RegExp with square brackets replacing everything

Question

I'm trying to replace all instances of [1] (including the brackets), but instead of replacing all instances of [1], it's replacing all instances of 1.

var index = 'abc123'
var regexp = new RegExp('[' + index + ']', 'g');
var new_id = new Date().getTime();

$(this).html().replace(regexp,'['+new_id+']')

Answer 1

You need to escape the brackets with \\ characters.

Since you're writing a Javascript string literal, you need to write \\ to create a single backslash for the regex escape.

Answer 2

Try escaping the brackets

var regexp = new RegExp('\\[' + index + '\\]', 'g');

Answer 3

Try this:

var index = 'abc123'
var regexp = new RegExp('\\[' + index + '\\]', 'g');
var new_id = new Date().getTime();

$(this).html().replace(regexp,new_id)

I changed the last line of your code because it did change all [1]'s just added the brackets back in the replace function. And also escape your brackets