JavaScript RegExp \w Metacharacter
Example
A global search for word characters:
let text = "Give 100%!";
let pattern = /\w/g;
Try it Yourself »
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 (JavaScript 1997) feature.
It is 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:
| Example | Description |
|---|---|
| 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() |
