The [@@search]()
method executes a search for a match between a this
regular expression and a string.
The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.
Syntax
regexp[Symbol.search](str)
Parameters
str
- A
String
that is a target of the search.
Return value
- integer
- If successful,
[@@search]()
returns the index of the first match of the regular expression inside the string. Otherwise, it returns -1.
Description
This method is called internally in String.prototype.search()
. For example, the following two examples return the same result.
'abc'.search(/a/); /a/[Symbol.search]('abc');
This method exists for customizing the search behavior in RegExp
subclasses.
Examples
Direct call
This method can be used in almost the same way as String.prototype.search()
, except the different this
and the different arguments order.
var re = /-/g; var str = '2016-01-02'; var result = re[Symbol.search](str); console.log(result); // 4
Using @@search
in subclasses
Subclass of RegExp
can override [@@search]()
method to modify the behavior.
class MyRegExp extends RegExp { constructor(str) { super(str) this.pattern = str; } [Symbol.search](str) { return str.indexOf(this.pattern); } } var re = new MyRegExp('a+b'); var str = 'ab a+b'; var result = str.search(re); // String.prototype.search calls re[@@search]. console.log(result); // 3
Specifications
Specification |
---|
ECMAScript (ECMA-262) The definition of 'RegExp.prototype[@@search]' in that specification. |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Desktop | Mobile | Server | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
@@search | Chrome Full support 50 | Edge Full support 13 | Firefox Full support 49 | IE No support No | Opera Full support 37 | Safari Full support 10 | WebView Android Full support 50 | Chrome Android Full support 50 | Firefox Android Full support 49 | Opera Android Full support 37 | Safari iOS Full support 10 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0 | nodejs Full support 6.0.0 |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support