Text Processing with JavaScript

match()

The match() method returns an array similar to exec(). You may have already noticed the similarity between these two methods. Consider this example:

appendix/methods/methods_ex4.js

const str = "About 100ft";
const re = /(\d+)ft/;

console.log(str.match(re));
// → ["100ft", "100", index: 6, input: "About 100ft", groups: undefined]

console.log(re.exec(str));
// → ["100ft", "100", index: 6, input: "About 100ft", groups: undefined]

exec() and match() return the same result. The output differs only when you set the global flag (g):

appendix/methods/methods_ex5.js

const str = "9ft, 10ft, 11ft";
const re = /(\d\d)ft/g;

console.log(str.match(re));
// → ["10ft", "11ft"]

console.log(re.exec(str)); ...