JavaScript RegExp Group (x|y)
Example
A global search for any of the alternatives (red|green):
let text = "re, green, red, green, gren, gr, blue, yellow";
let pattern= /(red|green)/g;
Try it Yourself »
Definition and Usage
The (x|y) expression is used to find any of the alternatives specified.
The alternatives can be of any characters.
Browser Support
/(x|y)/ is an ECMAScript1 (ES1) feature.
ES1 (JavaScript 1997) is fully supported in all browsers:
| Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Safari | Opera | IE |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Syntax
new RegExp("(x|y)")
or simply:
/(x|y)/
Syntax with modifiers
new RegExp("(x|y)", "g")
or simply:
/(x|y)/g
More Examples
Example
Do a global search to find any of the specified alternatives (0|5|7):
let text = "01234567890123456789";
let pattern = /(0|5|7)/g;
Try it Yourself »
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() |
