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MDN / Quantifiers

Quantifiers indicate numbers of characters or expressions to match.

const ghostSpeak = "booh boooooooh";
const regexpSpooky = /bo{3,}h/;
console.log(ghostSpeak.match(regexpSpooky));
// Expected output: Array ["boooooooh"]

const modifiedQuote = "[He] ha[s] to go read this novel [Alice in Wonderland].";
const regexpModifications = /\[.*?\]/g;
console.log(modifiedQuote.match(regexpModifications));
// Expected output: Array ["[He]", "[s]", "[Alice in Wonderland]"]

const regexpTooGreedy = /\[.*\]/g;
console.log(modifiedQuote.match(regexpTooGreedy));
// Expected output: Array ["[He] ha[s] to go read this novel [Alice in Wonderland]"]

Types

In the following, item refers not only to singular characters, but also includes character classes and groups and backreferences.

Examples

Repeated pattern

In this example, we match one or more word characters with \w+, then one or more characters “a” with a+, and finally end at a word boundary with \b.

const wordEndingWithAs = /\w+a+\b/;
const delicateMessage = "This is Spartaaaaaaa";

console.table(delicateMessage.match(wordEndingWithAs)); // [ "Spartaaaaaaa" ]

Counting characters

In this example, we match words that have a single letter, words that have between 2 and 6 letters, and words that have 13 or more letters.

const singleLetterWord = /\b\w\b/g;
const notSoLongWord = /\b\w{2,6}\b/g;
const longWord = /\b\w{13,}\b/g;

const sentence = "Why do I have to learn multiplication table?";

console.table(sentence.match(singleLetterWord)); // ["I"]
console.table(sentence.match(notSoLongWord)); // [ "Why", "do", "have", "to", "learn", "table" ]
console.table(sentence.match(longWord)); // ["multiplication"]

Optional character

In this example, we match words that either end with “our” or “or”.

const britishText = "He asked his neighbour a favour.";
const americanText = "He asked his neighbor a favor.";

const regexpEnding = /\w+ou?r/g;
// \w+ One or several letters
// o   followed by an "o",
// u?  optionally followed by a "u"
// r   followed by an "r"

console.table(britishText.match(regexpEnding));
// ["neighbour", "favour"]

console.table(americanText.match(regexpEnding));
// ["neighbor", "favor"]

Greedy versus non-greedy

In this example, we match one or more word characters or spaces with [\w ]+ and [\w ]+?. The first one is greedy and the second one is non-greedy. Note how the second one stops as soon as it meets the minimal requirement.

const text = "I must be getting somewhere near the center of the earth.";
const greedyRegexp = /[\w ]+/;

console.log(text.match(greedyRegexp)[0]);
// "I must be getting somewhere near the center of the earth"
// almost all of the text matches (leaves out the dot character)

const nonGreedyRegexp = /[\w ]+?/; // Notice the question mark
console.log(text.match(nonGreedyRegexp));
// "I"
// The match is the smallest one possible

See also