It seems like IE11 is treating $0 as a special replacement pattern and substituting it back with %3. This behavior is breaking my string replacement logic. Has anyone encountered this IE11 quirk before and found a workaround?
You’re experiencing a string replacement issue in Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) where the replace() method behaves differently than in modern browsers, particularly when the replacement string contains dollar signs ($). Specifically, IE11 seems to interpret dollar signs followed by digits as special replacement patterns, leading to incorrect substitutions.
TL;DR: The Quick Fix:
Replace your replace() method with a combination of split() and join(). This avoids IE11’s problematic handling of dollar signs in replacement strings.
content = content.split("%3").join(text);
Understanding the “Why” (The Root Cause):
IE11’s replace() method has a known quirk related to how it processes dollar signs within the replacement string. While modern browsers generally treat dollar signs literally unless used as part of a specific backreference syntax (e.g., $1, $2 for capturing groups), IE11 is more sensitive. It interprets sequences like $0, $1, $2, etc., as special tokens, even when these tokens aren’t related to any capturing groups defined in your regular expression. This causes unexpected substitutions, making your replacement strings incorrect.
The split("%3").join(text) approach sidesteps this problem entirely. split("%3") divides the content string into an array of substrings wherever "%3" is found. join(text) then concatenates these substrings back together, inserting the text variable in place of each occurrence of "%3". This method doesn’t use the replace() method’s replacement string parsing mechanism, thus avoiding IE11’s problematic behavior.
Step-by-Step Guide:
Replace replace() with split() and join(). This is the core of the solution. Directly substitute your existing replace() statement with the following:
content = content.split("%3").join(text);
This will replace all occurrences of "%3" within the content string with the contents of the text variable, regardless of dollar signs present in text.
Test in IE11. After making this change, thoroughly test your code in IE11 to verify that the string replacements are now correct and that the IE11 specific issue has been resolved.
Common Pitfalls & What to Check Next:
Performance: While this method generally performs well, for extremely large strings or frequent operations, the performance impact of split() and join() might become noticeable compared to replace(). If performance is critical, profile your code to assess the impact. You could explore other optimized methods like a loop-based approach if necessary.
Escaping Special Characters: If your replacement text (text) contains other characters that might be interpreted specially by join(), such as commas or backslashes, consider further escaping or encoding these characters before performing the join() operation.
Alternatives: While split() and join() provide a reliable workaround for this IE11 quirk, if you are using a modern JS environment, explore the use of a modern JS transpiler (like Babel) to allow you to use modern JS and not have to deal with IE11’s quirks directly.
Still running into issues? Share your (sanitized) config files, the exact command you ran, and any other relevant details. The community is here to help!
Yeah, IE11 treats $0 as a special replacement pattern for the entire match. Classic IE nonsense.
Escape the dollar signs in your replacement text:
text = text.replace(/\$/g, '$$');
content = content.replace(new RegExp("%3", "g"), text);
Doubling the dollar signs makes IE11 treat them literally instead of as replacement patterns.
Honestly, IE11 quirks like this are why I automate browser compatibility testing. I run workflows that catch these issues before production.
I use Latenode for automated test suites that run the same string operations across different browsers. Saves debugging time and catches edge cases you’d miss testing manually.
Build a simple workflow that takes your text processing logic, runs it through different browser engines, and alerts you when results don’t match. Way better than finding these problems after deployment.
Hit this same issue with legacy enterprise apps. Try template literals with a helper function - it sidesteps IE11’s bizarre dollar sign parsing. content.replace(/%3/g, () => \${text}`)` works great and keeps your text intact without escape character hell.
Yeah, this is a classic IE11 bug. IE11 treats dollar signs in replacement strings as special substitution tokens, while modern browsers are less aggressive about it.
I hit this exact issue when migrating old code. Here’s what worked for me - use a function instead of a string for the replacement:
This completely bypasses IE11’s pattern matching since it treats the function’s return value as literal text. Way cleaner than escaping dollar signs, and it works across all browsers without touching your original text variable.
I’ve shipped this fix in several production apps and it handles all the problematic dollar sign patterns in IE11 - $0, $1, $&, you name it.
Understanding the “Why” (The Root Cause):
Step-by-Step Guide:
Common Pitfalls & What to Check Next:
Still running into issues? Share your (sanitized) config files, the exact command you ran, and any other relevant details. The community is here to help!