JavaScript - Search

Advanced Search Function Examples

The following examples play around with the names a little so you can clearly see how the search function operates.

var myRegExp1 = /Tom|Jan|Alex/;
var string1 = "John went to the store and talked with Alexandra today.";
var matchPos1 = string1.search(myRegExp1);

if(matchPos1 != -1)
document.write("The first string found a match at " + matchPos1);
else
document.write("No match was found in the first string");

var myRegExp2 = /Tom|Jan|Alex /;
var string2 = "John went to the store and talked with Alexandra today.";
var matchPos2 = string2.search(myRegExp2);
if(matchPos2 != -1)
document.write("
The second string found a match at " + matchPos2);
else
document.write("
No match was found in the second string");

var myRegExp3 = /Tom|Jan|Alexandra/;
var string3 = "John went to the store and talked with Alexandra today.";
var matchPos3 = string3.search(myRegExp3);
if(matchPos3 != -1)
document.write("
The third string found a match at " + matchPos3);
else
document.write("
No match was found in the third string");

var myRegExp4 = /Tom|Jan|Alexandra/;
var string4 = "John went to the store and talked with Alex today.";
var matchPos4 = string4.search(myRegExp4);
if(matchPos4 != -1)
document.write("
The fourth string found a match at " + matchPos4);
else
document.write("
No match was found in the fourth string");


Display:

The first string found a match at 39
No match was found in the second string
The third string found a match at 39
No match was found in the fourth string