highlight() now accepts regular expressions as well.

actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb

@@ -123,7 +123,9 @@ def highlight(text, phrases, options = {})
           text
         else
           highlighter = options.fetch(:highlighter, '<mark>\1</mark>')
-          match = Array(phrases).map { |p| Regexp.escape(p) }.join('|')
+          match = Array(phrases).map do |p|
+            Regexp === p ? p.to_s : Regexp.escape(p)
+          end.join('|')
           text.gsub(/(#{match})(?![^<]*?>)/i, highlighter)
         end.html_safe
       end
@@ -156,11 +158,11 @@ def excerpt(text, phrase, options = {})
         return unless text && phrase
 
         separator = options.fetch(:separator, nil) || ""
-        if Regexp === phrase
+        case phrase
+        when Regexp
           regex = phrase
         else
-          phrase    = Regexp.escape(phrase)
-          regex     = /#{phrase}/i
+          regex = /#{Regexp.escape(phrase)}/i
         end
 
         return unless matches = text.match(regex)

actionview/test/template/text_helper_test.rb

@@ -222,6 +222,11 @@ def test_highlight_with_regexp
     )
   end
 
+  def test_highlight_accepts_regexp
+    assert_equal("This day was challenging for judge <mark>Allen</mark> and his colleagues.",
+                 highlight("This day was challenging for judge Allen and his colleagues.", /\ballen\b/i))
+  end
+
   def test_highlight_with_multiple_phrases_in_one_pass
     assert_equal %(<em>wow</em> <em>em</em>), highlight('wow em', %w(wow em), :highlighter => '<em>\1</em>')
   end
@@ -264,9 +269,12 @@ def test_excerpt
     assert_equal("...is a beautiful morn...", excerpt("This is a beautiful morning", "beautiful", :radius => 5))
     assert_equal("This is a...", excerpt("This is a beautiful morning", "this", :radius => 5))
     assert_equal("...iful morning", excerpt("This is a beautiful morning", "morning", :radius => 5))
+    assert_nil excerpt("This is a beautiful morning", "day")
+  end
+
+  def test_excerpt_with_regex
     assert_equal("...udge Allen and...", excerpt("This day was challenging for judge Allen and his colleagues.", /\ballen\b/i, :radius => 5))
     assert_equal("...judge Allen and...", excerpt("This day was challenging for judge Allen and his colleagues.", /\ballen\b/i, :radius => 1, :separator => ' '))
-    assert_nil excerpt("This is a beautiful morning", "day")
   end
 
   def test_excerpt_should_not_be_html_safe