How to wp_enqueue_script jQuery inside a Plugin

Question

I would like to use jQuery in my Wordpress plugin. I'm trying to load the jquery library using the enqueue script but its throwing an error.

Error: $ is not a function

Here's the code snippet that's inside my main plugin.php file...

function ($post)
{
    wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
    ?>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    function doTestParse(searchString){
        var rx = new RegExp('(?![^<]+>)'+searchString, "gi");
        $(this).html($(this).html().replace(rx, '<b>$&</b>'));
    }
    </script>
<?php ?>

Answer 1

jQuery is included in noConflict mode in WordPress, so you can't use the shorthand $, but must write jQuery(this).html(jQuery(this).html().replace(rx, '<b>$&</b>'));

Answer 2

I am not sure when exactly your code fires, but it is good practice to add enqueue directives to init hook, instead of trying to call them in-place.

wp_enqueue_script docs in Codex have plenty of useful examples on topic.