Do all browsers handle searching multi-line with regex?

Question

Will all browsers (IE6+, FF3+, Safari 3+, Chrome) execute a javascript regex search across line boundaries in the searched string? Example:

var sourceStr = "This is some text \nOn multiple lines\nAnd the 2nd line.";
sourceStr = sourceStr.replace(/line/g, "xxx");

Also, are there any good references of what regex features are or aren't supported in various browsers.

Answer 1

Yes, but if you use any char syntax - dot "." in regex patterns, you may need to change it to [\s\S] to match any chars across lines.

Answer 2

The ECMA specification ( ECMA-262 ) dictates acceptable regular expression grammar and multiline support is explicitly mentioned. Section 15.10.2.6 in particular demonstrates the effect of multiline support on Assertions.

So, if the browser supports the ECMA-262 specification, then yes, it supports multiline.

Of course, you should endeavor to test your code before you can be confident it works. It wouldn't be the first time a browser has failed to implement a specification correctly.

EDIT: To clarify, JavaScript 1.5 is fully compatible with ECMA-262, Edition 3. I understand the following browsers support JavaScript version 1.5 or higher:

• Safari 2.0 or newer (Mac)
• Camino 0.8 or newer (Mac)
• Firefox 0.9 or newer (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer (Windows)
• Mozilla 1.2 or newer (Linux)
• Netscape 7.1 or newer (Windows, Mac)
• Opera 8.0 or newer (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Can't actually find a decent source for Chrome although I'd be shocked if it didn't support JavaScript >= 1.5.