lastIndex

Summary

Returns the character position where the next match begins in a searched string.

Syntax

RegExp.lastIndex

Examples

The following example illustrates the use of the lastIndex property. This function iterates a search string and prints out the index and lastIndex values for each word in the string.

function RegExpTest()
 {
    var ver = Number(ScriptEngineMajorVersion() + "." + ScriptEngineMinorVersion())
    if (ver < 5.5)
    {
       document.write("You need a newer version of JavaScript for this to work");
       return;
    }

    var src = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";

    // Create regular expression pattern with a global flag.
    var re = /\w+/g;

    // Get the next word, starting at the position of lastindex.
    var arr;
    while ((arr = re.exec(src)) != null)
       {
       // New line:
       document.write ("<br />");
       document.write (arr.index + "-" + re.lastIndex + " ");
       document.write (arr);
       }
 }

Remarks

The object associated with this property is always the global RegExp object.

The lastIndex property is zero-based, that is, the index of the first character is zero. Its initial value is -1. Its value is modified whenever a successful match is made.

The lastIndex property is modified by the exec and test methods of the RegExp object, and the match , replace , and split methods of the String object.

The following rules apply to values of lastIndex :

• If there is no match, lastIndex is set to -1.
• If lastIndex is greater than the length of the string, test and exec fail and lastIndex is set to -1.
• If lastIndex is equal to the length of the string, the regular expression matches if the pattern matches the empty string. Otherwise, the match fails and lastIndex is reset to -1.
• Otherwise, lastIndex is set to the next position following the most recent match.

Attributions

• Microsoft Developer Network: Article