JavaScript RegExp \w Metacharacter


Example

A global search for word characters:

let text = "Give 100%!";
let pattern = /\w/g;
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Description

The \w metacharacter matches word characters.

A word character is a character a-z, A-Z, 0-9, including _ (underscore).

Browser Support

/\w/ is an ECMAScript1 (ES1) feature.

ES1 (JavaScript 1997) is fully supported in all browsers:

Chrome Edge Firefox Safari Opera IE
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes


Syntax

new RegExp("\\w")

or simply:

/\w/

Syntax with modifiers

new RegExp("\\w", "g")

or simply:

/\w/g

Regular Expression Search Methods

In JavaScript, a regular expression text search, can be done with different methods.

With a pattern as a regular expression, these are the most common methods:

ExampleDescription
text.match(pattern)The String method match()
text.search(pattern)The String method search()
pattern.exec(text)The RexExp method exec()
pattern.test(text)The RegExp method test()

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