RegExp.lastMatch ($&)

Non-standard
This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.

The non-standard lastMatch property is a static and read-only property of regular expressions that contains the last matched characters. RegExp.$& is an alias for this property.

Syntax

JavaScript
<var>RegExp</var>.lastMatch
RegExp['$&']

Description

The lastMatch property is static, it is not a property of an individual regular expression object. Instead, you always use it as RegExp.lastMatch or RegExp['$&'].

The value of the lastMatch property is read-only and modified whenever a successful match is made.

You can not use the shorthand alias with the dot property accessor (RegExp.$&), because the parser expects an expression with "&" in that case and a SyntaxError is thrown. Use the bracket notation for property access.

Examples

Using lastMatch and $&

JavaScript
var re = /hi/g;
re.test("hi there!");
RegExp.lastMatch; // "hi"
RegExp['$&'];     // "hi"

Specifications

Non-standard. Not part of any current specification.

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)
Feature Android Chrome for Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)

See also

License

© 2016 Mozilla Contributors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/javascript/reference/global_objects/regexp/lastmatch

JavaScript Property Read-only Reference RegExp Regular Expressions