Regex: .exec() function not returning expected output

Question

This doesn't return what I, or regex101, expects:

var myString = "Accel World|http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/accel-worldAh! My Goddess|http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/ah-my-goddess";
var reg = /[^|]*/g;
var regResponse = reg.exec(myString);
console.log(regResponse);

according to regex101, this should match everything except '|' and return it yet it only matches the first string, Accel World, as opposed to everything but '|'.

How do I fix this?

What you've asked it to match is zero-or-more consecutive characters that are not |. Why not just use myString.split('|') to get an array of strings separated by |? — Phil
– Phil, Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 2:00
Interesting, any clue why regex101 returns everything instead of just consecutive? That seems odd because it is highly recommended. The .split might work, thanks for the idea. — ActionON
– ActionON, Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 2:06
Probably because it doesn't use exec which behaves differently to how you expect it to. See developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/… — Phil
– Phil, Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 2:09
regex101 probably uses something more like myString.match(reg) — Phil
– Phil, Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 2:11
The sad thing is I read the documentation and somehow completely misinterpreted what they were saying. — ActionON
– ActionON, Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 2:17

Gabriele Petrioli · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-28 02:11:16Z

3

Exec will only return one result at a time (subsequent calls will return the rest, but you also need to use the + instead of *)

You could use the myString.match(reg) htough to get all results in one go.

var myString = "Accel World|http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/accel-worldAh! My Goddess|http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/ah-my-goddess";
var reg = /[^|]+/g;
var regResponse = myString.match(reg);
console.log(regResponse);

answered Oct 28, 2015 at 2:11

Gabriele Petrioli

197k35 gold badges275 silver badges331 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Griffith · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-28 02:11:11Z

1

You need to loop .exec() to retrieve all matches. The documentation says

If your regular expression uses the "g" flag, you can use the exec() method multiple times to find successive matches in the same string.

var reg = /[^|]+/g;
while(regResponse = reg.exec(myString)) {
    console.log(regResponse);
}

answered Oct 28, 2015 at 2:11

Griffith

3,2171 gold badge19 silver badges30 bronze badges

1 Comment

nhahtdh Over a year ago

While exec is a valid way to approach this, match is more convenient in this case.

shaunxer · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-28 02:07:15Z

1

Try a "+" instead of the "*"

So,

var reg = /[^|]+/g;

answered Oct 28, 2015 at 2:07

shaunxer

5211 bronze badges

2 Comments

ActionON Over a year ago

Doesn't change what exec() returns.

Phil Over a year ago

@ActionON it does if you run exec more than once

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Regex: .exec() function not returning expected output

3 Answers 3

Comments

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related