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regExp.exec

The exec() method executes a search for a match in a specified string. Returns a result array, or null.

If you are executing a match simply to find true or false, use the RegExp.prototype.test() method or the String.prototype.search() method.

Syntax

regexObj.exec(str)

Parameters

str
The string against which to match the regular expression.

Return value

If the match succeeds, the exec() method returns an array and updates properties of the regular expression object. The returned array has the matched text as the first item, and then one item for each capturing parenthesis that matched containing the text that was captured.

If the match fails, the exec() method returns null.

Description

Consider the following example:

// Match "quick brown" followed by "jumps", ignoring characters in between
// Remember "brown" and "jumps"
// Ignore case
var re = /quick\s(brown).+?(jumps)/ig;
var result = re.exec('The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog');

The following table shows the results for this script:

Object Property/Index Description Example
result [0] The full string of characters matched "Quick Brown Fox Jumps"
[1], ...[n] The parenthesized substring matches, if any. The number of possible parenthesized substrings is unlimited. result[1] === "Brown"
result[2] === "Jumps"
index The 0-based index of the match in the string. 4
input The original string that was matched against. "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog"
re lastIndex The index at which to start the next match. If g is absent, this will always be 0. 25
ignoreCase Indicates if the i flag was used to ignore case. true
global Indicates if the g flag was used for a global match. true
multiline Indicates if the m flag was used to search across multiple lines. false
source The text of the pattern. "quick\s(brown).+?(jumps)"

Examples

Finding successive matches

If your regular expression uses the "g" flag, you can use the exec() method multiple times to find successive matches in the same string. When you do so, the search starts at the substring of str specified by the regular expression's lastIndex property (test() will also advance the lastIndex property). Note that the lastIndex property will not be reset when searching a different string it will start its search at its existing lastIndex .

For example, assume you have this script:

var myRe = /ab*/g;
var str = 'abbcdefabh';
var myArray;
while ((myArray = myRe.exec(str)) !== null) {
  var msg = 'Found ' + myArray[0] + '. ';
  msg += 'Next match starts at ' + myRe.lastIndex;
  console.log(msg);
}

This script displays the following text:

Found abb. Next match starts at 3
Found ab. Next match starts at 9

Note: Do not place the regular expression literal (or RegExp constructor) within the while condition or it will create an infinite loop if there is a match due to the lastIndex property being reset upon each iteration. Also be sure that the global flag ("g") is set or an infinite loop will occur here also.

Using exec() with RegExp literals

You can also use exec() without creating a RegExp object:

var matches = /(hello \S+)/.exec('This is a hello world!');
console.log(matches[1]);

This will log a message containing 'hello world!'.

Specifications

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

Desktop
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support Yes Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
Mobile
Android webview Chrome for Android Edge Mobile Firefox for Android Opera for Android iOS Safari Samsung Internet
Basic support Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes Yes
Server
Node.js
Basic support Yes

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp/exec