Regex and JavaScript String With a Dollar ($) at the end

Question

In answering this PHP question: regex - preg_replace string, I came across something in Javascript I didn't understand. Given the following:

var s = "abc1!?d$";
alert(s.replace(/\W+/, " "));

I am alerted:

abc d$

Why is it not stripping out the last dollar?

Pointy · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-20 12:55:45Z

9

Because there's an intervening word character. Try this:

alert(s.replace(/\W+/g, ' '));

Without the "g" suffix on the regex, it only makes one substitution. That handles the "!?" in the middle, but that "d" ends the sequence.

answered Jun 20, 2011 at 12:55

Pointy

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Comments

Tobias Cohen · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-20 12:56:16Z

3

Because you're not using the (g)lobal flag on your matcher, so it's only matching the first consecutive sequence of non-word characters.

The following should give the result you expect:

var s = "abc1!?d$";
alert(s.replace(/\W+/g, " "));

answered Jun 20, 2011 at 12:56

Tobias Cohen

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