String.prototype.matchAll()
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since January 2020.
The matchAll()
method of String
values returns an iterator of all results matching this string against a regular expression, including capturing groups.
Try it
Syntax
matchAll(regexp)
Parameters
regexp
-
A regular expression object, or any object that has a
Symbol.matchAll
method.If
regexp
is not aRegExp
object and does not have aSymbol.matchAll
method, it is implicitly converted to aRegExp
by usingnew RegExp(regexp, 'g')
.If
regexp
is a regex, then it must have the global (g
) flag set, or aTypeError
is thrown.
Return value
An iterable iterator object (which is not restartable) of matches or an empty iterator if no matches are found. Each value yielded by the iterator is an array with the same shape as the return value of RegExp.prototype.exec()
.
Exceptions
TypeError
-
Thrown if the
regexp
is a regex that does not have the global (g
) flag set (itsflags
property does not contain"g"
).
Description
The implementation of String.prototype.matchAll
itself is very simple — it simply calls the Symbol.matchAll
method of the argument with the string as the first parameter (apart from the extra input validation that the regex is global). The actual implementation comes from RegExp.prototype[Symbol.matchAll]()
.
Examples
Regexp.prototype.exec() and matchAll()
Without matchAll()
, it's possible to use calls to regexp.exec()
(and regexes with the g
flag) in a loop to obtain all the matches:
const regexp = /foo[a-z]*/g;
const str = "table football, foosball";
let match;
while ((match = regexp.exec(str)) !== null) {
console.log(
`Found ${match[0]} start=${match.index} end=${regexp.lastIndex}.`,
);
}
// Found football start=6 end=14.
// Found foosball start=16 end=24.
With matchAll()
available, you can avoid the while
loop and exec
with g
. Instead, you get an iterator to use with the more convenient for...of
, array spreading, or Array.from()
constructs:
const regexp = /foo[a-z]*/g;
const str = "table football, foosball";
const matches = str.matchAll(regexp);
for (const match of matches) {
console.log(
`Found ${match[0]} start=${match.index} end=${
match.index + match[0].length
}.`,
);
}
// Found football start=6 end=14.
// Found foosball start=16 end=24.
// matches iterator is exhausted after the for...of iteration
// Call matchAll again to create a new iterator
Array.from(str.matchAll(regexp), (m) => m[0]);
// [ "football", "foosball" ]
matchAll
will throw an exception if the g
flag is missing.
const regexp = /[a-c]/;
const str = "abc";
str.matchAll(regexp);
// TypeError
matchAll
internally makes a clone of the regexp
— so, unlike regexp.exec()
, lastIndex
does not change as the string is scanned.
const regexp = /[a-c]/g;
regexp.lastIndex = 1;
const str = "abc";
Array.from(str.matchAll(regexp), (m) => `${regexp.lastIndex} ${m[0]}`);
// [ "1 b", "1 c" ]
However, this means that unlike using regexp.exec()
in a loop, you can't mutate lastIndex
to make the regex advance or rewind.
Better access to capturing groups (than String.prototype.match())
Another compelling reason for matchAll
is the improved access to capture groups.
Capture groups are ignored when using match()
with the global g
flag:
const regexp = /t(e)(st(\d?))/g;
const str = "test1test2";
str.match(regexp); // ['test1', 'test2']
Using matchAll
, you can access capture groups easily:
const array = [...str.matchAll(regexp)];
array[0];
// ['test1', 'e', 'st1', '1', index: 0, input: 'test1test2', length: 4]
array[1];
// ['test2', 'e', 'st2', '2', index: 5, input: 'test1test2', length: 4]
Using matchAll() with a non-RegExp implementing [Symbol.matchAll]()
If an object has a Symbol.matchAll
method, it can be used as a custom matcher. The return value of Symbol.matchAll
becomes the return value of matchAll()
.
const str = "Hmm, this is interesting.";
str.matchAll({
[Symbol.matchAll](str) {
return [["Yes, it's interesting."]];
},
}); // returns [["Yes, it's interesting."]]
Specifications
Specification |
---|
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-string.prototype.matchall |
Browser compatibility
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