String.prototype.match()

str.match(regexp)

The match() method searches a string using a regular expression and returns an array of matches, or null if no match is found.

Syntax

str.match(regexp)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
regexp	RegExp	A regular expression object. If a string is passed, it’s converted to a RegExp.

Examples

Basic usage

const text = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog";

// Simple word search
console.log(text.match(/fox/));
// ['fox', index: 16, input: 'The quick brown fox...', groups: undefined]

// Find all occurrences (with /g flag)
console.log(text.match(/o/g));
// ['o', 'o', 'o', 'o']

// No match returns null
console.log(text.match(/cat/));
// null

Working with capture groups

const dates = "2026-03-09, 2025-12-25";

// Extract year, month, day using capture groups
const regex = /(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})/;
const result = dates.match(regex);

console.log(result[0]);  // '2026-03-09'
console.log(result[1]);  // '2026'
console.log(result[2]);  // '03'
console.log(result[3]);  // '09'

Named capture groups

const log = "2026-03-09 14:30:45 [INFO] Server started";

// Named capture groups (ES2018+)
const pattern = /(?<year>\d{4})-(?<month>\d{2})-(?<day>\d{2})/;
const result = log.match(pattern);

console.log(result.groups.year);  // '2026'
console.log(result.groups.month); // '03'
console.log(result.groups.day);   // '09'

Common Patterns

Validating input

function isValidEmail(email) {
  const pattern = /^[^\s@]+@[^\s@]+\.[^\s@]+$/;
  return pattern.test(email);
}

console.log(isValidEmail("user@example.com")); // true
console.log(isValidEmail("invalid"));         // false

Extracting all URLs from text

const html = 'Visit https://jsguides.dev or http://example.com today!';
const urlRegex = /https?:\/\/[^\s]+/g;

const urls = html.match(urlRegex);
console.logurls);
// ['https://jsguides.dev', 'http://example.com']

match() vs matchAll()

Feature	match()	matchAll()
Returns	Array or null	Iterator
Capture groups	Accessible	Accessible with indices
/g flag required	No	Yes (always)

See Also

• string::matchAll
• string::replace
• string::search