483196 - Javascript regular expression including global flag and "end of input" special char gives unexpected results

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 98409

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[jonathan.pasquier]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; ca; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009021910 Firefox/3.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; ca; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009021910 Firefox/3.0.7

Testing for a pattern with a javascript regex that includes the global flag and the "end of input" ($) character leads to unexpected results.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run the following javascript code:

for (var i = 0; i < 4; i++)
	console.info("Single line: " + /^[a-z]+$/g.test("test"));

console.info("----")

for (var i = 0; i < 9; i++)
	console.info("Multiline: " + /^[a-z]+$/gm.test("test\ntest"));

2. Look in the result in the firebug console
Actual Results:  
This is what can be seen in the firebug console:

Single line: true
Single line: false
Single line: true
Single line: false
----
Multiline: true
Multiline: true
Multiline: false
Multiline: true
Multiline: true
Multiline: false
Multiline: true
Multiline: true
Multiline: false

Expected Results:  
The test should always return true in this case

An easy workaround is to remove the g flag form the regexp

Comment 1

[Simon Bünzli]

(In reply to comment #0)
> An easy workaround is to remove the g flag form the regexp

That's not a work-around but the correct thing to do.