Why isn't this regex working in Javascript?

Question

I currently have this in my script and I am not really sure why it isn't working. It works on a regex tester and it's quite a simple regular expression.

var page = '<div id="loginOverlay" class="loginOverlay">' +
 '<div id="loginForm">' +
      '<form name="loginForm" method="post" action="/test.jspx" onsubmit="grayLoginAnonymous();return false;" style="margin:0px;" autocomplete="off"><input type="hidden" name="org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN" value="21a9e5a4197cfaefec409d8473f29a6e" />'+    
     ' </form>'+
  ' </div> '+
' </div>';

var pattern = /<input type='hidden' name='org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN' value='((\d|\w)+)' \/>/;
var match = page.match(pattern);
document.write(match);
console.log(page);
console.log(match);

</script>

match returns 'null'. Can someone point out the problem?

I think it's because you are trying to match that pattern exactly, when var page contains characters before and after that pattern. Try putting a .* at the beginning and end. You may also need to specify matching across new lines. — Richard H
– Richard H, Commented Dec 8, 2010 at 10:35
Be aware that . means "any character" in regular expressions. So while it will also match a literal dot, you should be more specific and write \. if you want a regex to match an actual dot. — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Dec 8, 2010 at 10:35
It was just a mistake on my part about the double quote and single quote. Thanks guys. — Teej
– Teej, Commented Dec 8, 2010 at 11:19

Jakob · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-08 10:33:08Z

4

You have used single quotes instead of double quotes. Change the pattern to this and it will work:

var pattern = /<input type="hidden" name="org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN" value="((\d|\w)+)" \/>/;

Also, make sure to take care of the dots like Tim Pietzcker pointed out in his comment!

answered Dec 8, 2010 at 10:33

Jakob

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1 Comment

Teej Over a year ago

oh. my. god. what a dumb mistake. Thanks Jakob.

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