Is there a case insensitive jQuery :contains selector?

What I ended up doing for jQuery 1.2 is :

jQuery.extend(
    jQuery.expr[':'], { 
        Contains : "jQuery(a).text().toUpperCase().indexOf(m[3].toUpperCase())>=0" 
});

This will extend jquery to have a :Contains selector that is case insensitive, the :contains selector remains unchanged.

Edit: For jQuery 1.3 (thanks @user95227) and later you need

jQuery.expr[':'].Contains = function(a,i,m){
     return jQuery(a).text().toUpperCase().indexOf(m[3].toUpperCase())>=0;
};

Edit: Apparently accessing the DOM directly by using

(a.textContent || a.innerText || "") 

instead of

jQuery(a).text()

In the previous expression speeds it up considerably so try at your own risk if speed is an issue. (see @John 's question)

Latest edit: For jQuery 1.8 it should be:

jQuery.expr[":"].Contains = jQuery.expr.createPseudo(function(arg) {
    return function( elem ) {
        return jQuery(elem).text().toUpperCase().indexOf(arg.toUpperCase()) >= 0;
    };
});

To make it optionally case insensitive: http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/278

$.extend($.expr[':'], {
  'containsi': function(elem, i, match, array)
  {
    return (elem.textContent || elem.innerText || '').toLowerCase()
    .indexOf((match[3] || "").toLowerCase()) >= 0;
  }
});

then use :containsi instead of :contains

As of jQuery 1.3, this method is deprecated. To get this to work it needs to be defined as a function:

jQuery.expr[':'].Contains = function(a,i,m){
    return jQuery(a).text().toUpperCase().indexOf(m[3].toUpperCase())>=0;
};

If someone (like me) is interested what do a and m[3] mean in Contains definition.

KEY/LEGEND: Params made available by jQuery for use in the selector definitions:

r = jQuery array of elements being scrutinised. (eg: r.length = Number of elements)

i = index of element currently under scrutiny, within array r.

a = element currently under scrutiny. Selector statement must return true to include it in its matched results.

m[2] = nodeName or * that we a looking for (left of colon).

m[3] = param passed into the :selector(param). Typically an index number, as in :nth-of-type(5), or a string, as in :color(blue).

jQuery.expr[':'].contains = function(a,i,m){
    return jQuery(a).text().toUpperCase().indexOf(m[3].toUpperCase())>=0;
};

The update code works great in 1.3, but "contains" should be lower case on the first letter unlike the previous example.

A faster version using regular expressions.

$.expr[':'].icontains = function(el, i, m) { // checks for substring (case insensitive)
    var search = m[3];
    if (!search) return false;

    var pattern = new RegExp(search, 'i');
    return pattern.test($(el).text());
};

New a variable I give it name subString and put string you want to search in some elements text. Then using Jquery selector select elements you need like my example $("elementsYouNeed") and filter by .filter(). In the .filter() it will compare each elements in $("elementsYouNeed") with the function.

In the function i using .toLowerCase() for element text also subString that can avoid case sensitive condition and check if there is a subString in it. After that the .filter() method constructs a new jQuery object from a subset of the matching elements.

Now you can get the match elements in matchObjects and do whatever you want.

var subString ="string you want to match".toLowerCase();

var matchObjects = $("elementsYouNeed").filter(function () {return $(this).text().toLowerCase().indexOf(subString) > -1;});