Javascript String matchAll()

The syntax of the matchAll() method is:

str.matchAll(regexp)

Here, str is a string.

matchAll() Parameters

The matchAll() method takes in:

• regexp - A regular expression object (Argument is implicitly converted to RegExp if it is a non-RegExp object)

Note: If RegExp object does not have the /g flag, a TypeError will be thrown.

Return value from matchAll()

• Returns an iterator containing the matches including the capturing groups.

Example 1: Using matchAll()

const string = "I am learning JavaScript not Java.";
const re = /Java[a-z]*/gi;

let result = string.matchAll(re);

for (match of result) {
  console.log(match);
}

Output

[
  'JavaScript',
  index: 14,
  input: 'I am learning JavaScript not Java.',
  groups: undefined
]
[
  'Java',
  index: 29,
  input: 'I am learning JavaScript not Java.',
  groups: undefined
]

Here, the returned iterator is iterated over using the for...of loop.

Example 2: Using matchAll to capture groups

const string = "My name is Albert. YOUR NAME is Soyuj.";

// expression matches case-insensitive "name is"+ any alphabets till period (.)
// using named capturing groups
const re = /name\sis\s(?<name>[a-zA-Z]+)\./gi;
let found = string.matchAll(re);

for (const match of found){
    console.log(`Found "${match[0]}" at index ${match.index}. Captured name = ${match.groups['name']}`)
}

Output

Found "name is Albert." at index 3. Captured name = Albert
Found "NAME is Soyuj." at index 24. Captured name = Soyuj

Here, we have used a regular expression to match a certain portion of the string. We can capture certain groups in the match using matchAll() better than match().

Recommended Reading: JavaScript String match()