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string.search

The search() method executes a search for a match between a regular expression and this String object.

Syntax

str.search(regexp)

Parameters

regexp: A regular expression object. If a non-RegExp object obj is passed, it is implicitly converted to a RegExp by using new RegExp(obj).

Return value

The index of the first match between the regular expression and the given string; if not found, -1.

Description

When you want to know whether a pattern is found and also its index in a string use search() (if you only want to know if it exists, use the similar test() method on the RegExp prototype, which returns a boolean); for more information (but slower execution) use match() (similar to the regular expression exec() method).

Examples

Using `search()`

The following example searches a string with 2 different regex objects to show a successful search (positive value) vs. an unsuccessful search (-1)

var str = "hey JudE";
var re = /[A-Z]/g;
var re2 = /[.]/g;
console.log(str.search(re)); // returns 4, which is the index of the first capital letter "J"
console.log(str.search(re2)); // returns -1 cannot find '.' dot punctuation

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
ECMAScript 3rd Edition (ECMA-262)	Standard	Initial definition. Implemented in JavaScript 1.2.
ECMAScript 5.1 (ECMA-262) The definition of 'String.prototype.search' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2015 (6th Edition, ECMA-262) The definition of 'String.prototype.search' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript Latest Draft (ECMA-262) The definition of 'String.prototype.search' in that specification.	Draft

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	Yes	Yes	1	Yes	Yes	Yes
`flags`	No	No	1 — 49	No	No	No

	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
`flags`	No	No	No	4 — 49	No	No	No

	Server
	Node.js
Basic support	Yes
`flags`	No

Gecko-specific notes

flags was a non standard second argument only available in Gecko : str.search(regexp, flags)
Prior to Gecko 8.0, search() was implemented incorrectly; when it was called with no parameters or with undefined, it would match against the string 'undefined', instead of matching against the empty string. This is fixed; now 'a'.search() and 'a'.search(undefined) correctly return 0.
Starting with Gecko 39 (Firefox 39 / Thunderbird 39 / SeaMonkey 2.36), the non-standard flags argument is deprecated and throws a console warning (bug 1142351).
Starting with Gecko 47 (Firefox 47 / Thunderbird 47 / SeaMonkey 2.44), the non-standard flags argument is no longer supported in non-release builds and will soon be removed entirely (bug 1245801).
Starting with Gecko 49 (Firefox 49 / Thunderbird 49 / SeaMonkey 2.46), the non-standard flags argument is no longer supported (bug 1108382).