JavaScript RegExp \w Metacharacter

The RegExp \w Metacharacter in JavaScript is used to find the word character i.e. characters from a to z, A to Z, 0 to 9. It is the same as [a-zA-Z_0-9]. 

Syntax: 

/\w/ 

or

new RegExp("\\w")

Syntax with modifiers:

/\w/g 

or

new RegExp("\\w", "g")

Example 1: This example searches the lowercase characters, uppercase characters, and underscore. 

Javascript

function geek() {
    let str1 = "GeeksforGeeks@_123_$";
    let regex4 = /\w/g;
    let match4 = str1.match(regex4);

    console.log("Found " + match4.length
        + " matches: " + match4);
}
geek();

Output

Found 18 matches: G,e,e,k,s,f,o,r,G,e,e,k,s,_,1,2,3,_

Example 2: This example searches the lowercase characters, uppercase characters and underscores and replaces them with hash(#). 

Javascript

function geek() {
    let str1 = "128@$%";
    let replacement = "#";
    let regex4 = new RegExp("\\w", "g");
    let match4 = str1.replace(regex4, replacement);

    console.log("Found " + match4.length
        + " matches: " + match4);
}
geek();

Output

Found 6 matches: ###@$%

Supported Browsers: The browsers supported by RegExp \w Metacharacter are listed below:

• Chrome
• Safari
• Firefox
• Opera
• Edge

We have a complete list of Javascript RegExp expressions, to check those please go through this JavaScript RegExp Complete Reference article.

We have a Cheat Sheet on Javascript where we covered all the important topics of Javascript to check those please go through Javascript Cheat Sheet-A Basic guide to JavaScript.