Regular expression (match function), javascript

Question

I think this is a very basic question, but I really can't understand the concept. I have the following regular expression:

var t = '11:59 am';
t.match(/^(\d+)/);

Now, according to my understanding when I print the value I should just get 11 since I am just checking for digits. However, I get 11,11. I have to use 0th element to pick the required value like t.match(/^(\d+)/)[0].

Sam · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-14 18:37:31Z

1

This is because you are using a capture group, (), around the digits. Try replacing this with:

t.match(/^\d+/);

Note: this will still return an array, because that's just what .match() does.

answered Jul 14, 2016 at 18:37

Sam

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2 Comments

Rudrani Angira Over a year ago

Thank you sam.I understand it now. I dint know about the capture group.

Sam Over a year ago

Glad I could help. Sorry that, as far as I know, there isn't a good JS regex method to just return a simple string instead of an array of data. /^\d+/.exec(t) will return ['11'] as well.

cxw · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-14 18:39:06Z

1

match() always returns an array if there are any matches. Element [0] is the whole match, and element [1] is what is inside the first set of parentheses.

answered Jul 14, 2016 at 18:39

cxw

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