Check if a Regex matches an Entire String in JavaScript

Check if a Regex matches an Entire String #

Use the test() method to check if a regular expression matches an entire string, e.g. /^hello$/.test(str). The caret ^ and dollar sign $ match the beginning and end of the string. The test method returns true if the regex matches the entire string, and false otherwise.

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const str = 'hello';

const test = /^hello$/.test(str);
console.log(test); // 👉️ true

const match = str.match(/^hello$/);
console.log(match); // 👉️ ['hello']

We used the RegExp.test method to check if a regex matches an entire string.

The forward slashes / / mark the beginning and end of the regular expression.

The caret lets us specify that the string has to start with a specific character, and the dollar that it has to end with the provided character. Anything in between also has to be matched.

If either of the conditions is not met, the test method will return false.

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const str = 'hello';

const test = /^hell$/.test(str);
console.log(test); // 👉️ false

If you need to get an array containing the match(es), you can use the String.match method.

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const str = 'hello123';

const match = str.match(/^hello[0-9]+$/);
console.log(match); // 👉️ ['hello123']

Our regular expression uses a character class [] to check for a range of digits 0-9 at the end of the string.

The plus + matches one or more of the preceding item (digits).

The match method returns an array containing the matches or null if the regular expression is not matched in the string.

You often have to handle the possible return value of null, by using the logical OR (||) operator.

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const str = 'hello123';

const match = str.match(/^bye[0-9]+$/) || [];
console.log(match); // 👉️ []

If there is no match, we return an empty array. This would prevent us from getting an error when we try to access the array element at index 0 on a null value.