Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Name

exec() — NN 4 IE J3 ECMA n/a

Synopsis

exec(string)

Performs a search through the string passed as a parameter for the current regular expression pattern. A typical sequence follows the format:

var myRE = /somePattern/
var resultArray = myRE.exec("someString")

Properties of both the static RegExp and regular expression (myRE in the example) objects are updated with information about the results of the search. In addition, the exec() method returns an array of data, much of it similar to RegExp object properties. The returned array includes the following properties:

index

Zero-based index of starting character in the string that matches the pattern

input

The original string being searched

[0]

String of the characters matching the pattern

[1]...[n]

Strings of the results of the parenthesized component matches

You can stow away the results of the exec() method in a variable, whereas the RegExp property values change with the next regular expression operation. If the regular expression is set for global searching, a subsequent call to myRE.exec("someString") continues the search from the position of the previous match.

If no match is found for a given call to exec(), it returns null.

Returned Value

An array of match information if successful; null if there is no match.

Parameters

string

The string to be searched.