RegEx

JavaScript RegEx: Main Tips

• Regular expressions are objects which describe a character pattern.
• Using regular expressions, you can perform pattern searches, in addition to functions which search-and-replace text.

What RegEx is

JavaScript RegEx (or RegExp) is a shorter name for the regular expressions JavaScript developers use in their codes. They are used for describing character patterns that are to be applied for pattern searches and creation of functions. In case you need a quick trick to replace specific portions of strings, it is also important to understand the purpose and meaning of JavaScript RegExp.

JavaScript RegEx indicates a pattern which is to be manipulated with different JavaScript functions. Regular expressions can consist mainly of ordinary characters like letters (text) but they can also contain special symbols (/, *, \, .).

Bear in mind that by applying JavaScript RegEx you are looking for a direct match, which means that only exact characters will be returned.

Click on the Try it Live button under the example below and see how it works:

var patternExample = /bit/gi

Still a bit confused? Let's get the example explained:

• /bit/gi is a regular expression.
• bit is the pattern that we can use in a search.
• g is the modifier which makes the search return all possible results instead of one.
• i is the modifier which modifies the search so it is not case-insensitive.

Syntax Step by Step

Seeing the example above, you might have gotten the idea already that the general syntax for writing a regular expression JavaScript looks like this:

/pattern/modifiers;

Pattern refers to the standard or special characters you will attempt to perform functions on, while the modifiers indicate the type of matching.

When you want to specify the type of matching for regular expression JavaScript, you should include a specific modifier. As you can see in the table below, they can be used for performing global or case-insensitive searches:

Function of Brackets

If you want to be more specific when it comes to finding matches for functions like JavaScript replace RegEx, you can indicate the range. While by default only exact matches can be returned, brackets can specify that any character can be considered as a match:

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Metacharacters: What They Are

Some characters are referred to as metacharacters as they have a special meaning in the pattern processing. Usually it's a backslash (\) followed by a specific character, but it can also be a single symbol, such as a period (.).

The following table explains the different symbols and combinations that can be applied. Notice that the case-sensitivity matters:

Information on Quantifiers

JavaScript quantifiers could be called greedy. Why? Because they can only be satisfied with getting as many results as possible.

Quantifiers trigger RegEx to find as many matches of the specified pattern as possible. They indicate numbers of characters or expressions to match. See the table below for the list and explanations:

RegExp Object Properties

When writing JavaScript RegExp, you should also understand the usage of various properties. They are used to get more information about the regular expressions.

Using properties, you can check the modifiers, constructors, and other details of JavaScript RegExp:

Possible Methods

In this section, we will cover some of the functions that might be related to JavaScript RegEx. Most of them have something to do with learning the content of strings. See the table below and memorize the functions for later use: