jQuery search (:contains) without punctuation excluding specific class

Question

Currently I search within a div within an html file and remove the hideMe class if a result is found inside it, to reveal the found hymn. I'm wondering if I can search the hymn without punctuation (removing punctuation from both input and output), while also excluding the info class from the search.

<div id="himnario">
   <div id="1" class="song hideMe">
      <div class="info">I don't want this info to be searched</div>
      <div class="tuneName">This tune should be searched</div>
      <ol>
         <li>Verse 1</li>
         <li>Verse 2</li>
      </ol>
   </div>
   <div id="2" class="song hideMe">...</div>
</div>

My search code presently is:

$("#himnario div.song:Contains("+item+")").removeClass('hideMe').highlight(item);
isHighlighted = true; //check if highlighted later and unhighlight, for better performance

(extending jquery with "Contains" as follows)

return jQuery(a).text().toUpperCase().indexOf(m[3].toUpperCase()) >= 0; 

Also, I am using a jquery plugin for highlighting the results, so I suppose this would complicate things. If need be, the highlight could be disfunctional for those places where punctuation gets in the way.

Of course, the more efficient the better since this will be part of a mobile app... If removing the info class from the search takes a lot of time, I will have to just delete it from the file because it isn't absolutely essential.

I found the following code from here that might help, which is supposed to strip invalid characters, but not sure how to incorporate it into the custom Contains function properly with my limited coding ability.

Return Regex.Replace(strIn, "[^\w\.@-]", "")

Thanks so much in advance for your help.

Edit: Here is the preferred solution thanks to @Nick:

$('#himnario').children().addClass('hideMe'); // hide all hymns
//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12152098/jquery-search-contains-without-punctuation-excluding-specific-class
// Get rid of punctuation in your search item - this only allows alphanumeric
item2 = item.toUpperCase().replace(/<(.|\n)*?>|[^a-z0-9\s]/gi, ''); 
// Loop though each song
$('#himnario').children().each(function() {
    var $this_song = $(this);
    // Examine the song title & the ordered list, but not the hidden info (first child)
    $this_song.children('.tuneName, ol').each(function() {
        // Get the html, strip the punctuation and check if it contains the item
        if ($(this).html().toUpperCase().replace(/<(.|\n)*?>|[^a-z0-9\s]/gi, '').indexOf(item2) !== -1) {
            // If item is contained, change song class
            $this_song.removeClass('hideMe').highlight(item); //original search phrase
            isHighlighted = true; //check later, for better performance
            return false;   // Prevents examination of song lines if the title contains the item
        } 
    });            
});

Highlight function:

/*
highlight v3
Highlights arbitrary terms.
<http://johannburkard.de/blog/programming/javascript/highlight-javascript-text-higlighting-jquery-plugin.html>
MIT license.
Johann Burkard
<http://johannburkard.de>
<mailto:jb@eaio.com>
*/
jQuery.fn.highlight = function(pat) {
 function innerHighlight(node, pat) {
  var skip = 0;
  if (node.nodeType == 3) {
   var pos = node.data.toUpperCase().indexOf(pat);
   if (pos >= 0) {
    var spannode = document.createElement('span');
    spannode.className = 'highlight';
    var middlebit = node.splitText(pos);
    var endbit = middlebit.splitText(pat.length);
    var middleclone = middlebit.cloneNode(true);
    spannode.appendChild(middleclone);
    middlebit.parentNode.replaceChild(spannode, middlebit);
    skip = 1;
   }
  }
  else if (node.nodeType == 1 && node.childNodes && !/(script|style)/i.test(node.tagName)) {
   for (var i = 0; i < node.childNodes.length; ++i) {
    i += innerHighlight(node.childNodes[i], pat);
   }
  }
  return skip;
 }
 return this.each(function() {
  innerHighlight(this, pat.toUpperCase());
 });
};

jQuery.fn.removeHighlight = function() {
 return this.find("span.highlight").each(function() {
  this.parentNode.firstChild.nodeName;
  with (this.parentNode) {
   replaceChild(this.firstChild, this);
   normalize();
  }
 }).end();
};

Answer 1

Why not just use straight Javascript to accomplish this? A simple regex should do the trick:

str.replace(/[^a-z0-9\s]/gi, '')

This will take a string str and remove any character that isn't a number or a letter (alphanumeric). I wouldn't overwrite the original HTML if I were you (unless that is, of course, the point), but rather I'd store the value of the HTML in a string, str, and do your nasty regex to it there. That way the original HTML stays in tact and you still have your new string to play with and output if you choose. No jQuery required really, :contains will only slow you down.

Answer 2

jQuery works quickest if you go straight to an element by its id, and then filter from there. So, I'll assume your HTML is like this:

<div id="himnario">
    <div id="1" class="song hideMe">
        <div class="info">Hidden text</div>
        <div class="tuneName">Search me!</div>
        <ol>
            <li>Verse 1</li> 
            <li>Verse 2</li>
        </ol>
    </div>
    <div id="2" class="song hideMe">
        ...
    </div>
</div>

To find the songs most efficiently, you do this:

$('#himnario').children()...

Note: children() is much better than find() because it only searches to a depth of one level. Not specifying .song will speed things up if there are only songs as children. If so, you are going much faster already.

Once you've got the children, you can use each() which is not the absolutely fastest way, but it's OK. So this examines each song/child:

$('#himnario').children().each(function(index) {...});

For your case:

// Get rid of punctuation in you search item - this only allows alphanumeric
item = item.replace(/[\W]/gi, '');

// Loop though each song
$('#himnario').children().each(function() {
    var $this_song = $(this);

    // Loop through each line in this song [EDIT: this doesn't account for the title]
    $this_song.find('li').each(function() {

        // Get the html from the line, strip the punctuation and check if it contains the item
        if $(this).html().replace(/[\W]/gi, '').indexOf(item) !== -1 {
            // If item is contained, change song class
            $this_song.removeClass('hideMe');
            return false;   // Stops each_line loop once found one instance of item
        } 
    }            
});

I haven't done anything with the highlighting. I also haven't tested this, but it should work fine once you get any small bugs out :)

EDIT: In light of your "song title" field, you can do the following:

// Get rid of punctuation in you search item - this only allows alphanumeric
item = item.replace(/[\W]/gi, '');

// Loop though each song
$('#himnario').children().each(function() {
    var $this_song = $(this);

    // Examine the song title & the ordered list, but not the hidden info (first child)
    $this_song.children().not(':first').each(function() {

        // Get the html, strip the punctuation and check if it contains the item
        if $(this).html().replace(/[\W]/gi, '').indexOf(item) !== -1 {
            // If item is contained, change song class
            $this_song.removeClass('hideMe');
            return false;   // Prevents examination of song lines if the title contains the item
        } 
    }            
});

This version should be quicker than looping through each individual line. Note, too, that I've removed the index and index2 vars from the .each calls as you don't use them.