Capture groups with javascript regex

Question

I have a url string from which I want to capture all the words between the / delimiter:

So given this url:

"/way/items/add_items/sell_items":

I want to capture:

way
items
sell_items
add_items

If I do it like this:

'/way/items/sell_items/add_items'.match(/(\w+)/g)
=> [ 'way', 'items', 'sell_items', 'add_items' ]

It will give me an array back but with no capturing groups, why I do this instead:

new RegExp(/(\w+)/g).exec("/way/items/sell_items/add_items")
=> [ 'way', 'way', index: 1, input: '/way/items/sell_items/add_items' ]

But this only captures way .. I want it to capture all four words.

How do I do that?

Thanks

Answer 1

You should write

var parts = url.split("/");

The global flag is used to the replace method.
Also, it makes the exec method start from the last result (using the RegExp 's lastIndex property)

Answer 2

If you need by some reasons an exactly Regex, so use this, else use split() function.

Code:

var re = new RegExp(/\w+?(?=\/|$)/gi);  // added |$
alert(re);
var text = '/way/items/add_items/sell_items';
var aRes = text.match(re);

Result: [way, items, add_items, sell_items];