JavaScript RegExp \W Metacharacter
Example
A global search for non-word characters:
let text = "Give 100%!";
let pattern = /\W/g;
Try it Yourself »
Definition and Usage
The \W metacharacter matches non-word characters:
A word character is a character a-z, A-Z, 0-9, including _ (underscore).
Browser Support
/\W/ is an ECMAScript1 (ES1) feature.
ES1 (JavaScript 1997) is fully supported in all browsers:
| Chrome | IE | Edge | Firefox | Safari | Opera |
| 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() |
