String.prototype.includes()
Baseline
Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2015.
The includes() method of String values performs a case-sensitive search to determine whether a given string may be found within this string, returning true or false as appropriate.
Try it
const sentence = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";
const word = "fox";
console.log(
`The word "${word}" ${
sentence.includes(word) ? "is" : "is not"
} in the sentence`,
);
// Expected output: "The word "fox" is in the sentence"
Syntax
includes(searchString)
includes(searchString, position)
Parameters
searchString-
A string to be searched for within
str. Cannot be a regex. All values that are not regexes are coerced to strings, so omitting it or passingundefinedcausesincludes()to search for the string"undefined", which is rarely what you want. positionOptional-
The position within the string at which to begin searching for
searchString. (Defaults to0.)
Return value
true if the search string is found anywhere within the given string, including when searchString is an empty string; otherwise, false.
Exceptions
TypeError-
Thrown if
searchStringis a regex.
Description
This method lets you determine whether or not a string includes another string.
Case-sensitivity
The includes() method is case sensitive. For example, the following expression returns false:
"Blue Whale".includes("blue"); // returns false
You can work around this constraint by transforming both the original string and the search string to all lowercase:
"Blue Whale".toLowerCase().includes("blue"); // returns true
Examples
>Using includes()
const str = "To be, or not to be, that is the question.";
console.log(str.includes("To be")); // true
console.log(str.includes("question")); // true
console.log(str.includes("nonexistent")); // false
console.log(str.includes("To be", 1)); // false
console.log(str.includes("TO BE")); // false
console.log(str.includes("")); // true
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification> # sec-string.prototype.includes> |
Browser compatibility
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