JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Name

RegExp.toString( ) — convert a regular expression to a string

Availability

JavaScript 1.2; JScript 3.0; ECMAScript v3

Inherits from/Overrides

Overrides Object.toString( )

Synopsis

                  regexp.toString(  )

Returns

A string representation of regexp.

Throws

TypeError

If this method is invoked on an object that is not a RegExp.

Description

The RegExp.toString( ) method returns a string representation of a regular expression in the form of a regular expression literal.

Note that implementations are not required to add escape sequences to ensure that the returned string is a legal regular expression literal. Consider the regular expression created by the expression new RegExp("/", "g"). An implementation of RegExp.toString( ) could return ///g for this regular expression, or it could also add an escape sequence and return /\//g.