Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global objects/RegExp/dotAll

The dotAll property indicates whether or not the "s" flag is used with the regular expression. dotAll is a read-only property of an individual regular expression instance.

Property attributes of RegExp.prototype.dotAll
Writable	no
Enumerable	no
Configurable	yes

Description

The value of dotAll is a Boolean and true if the "s" flag was used; otherwise, false. The "s" flag indicates that the dot special character (".") should additionally match the following line terminator ("newline") characters in a string, which it would not match otherwise:

• U+000A LINE FEED (LF) ("\n")
• U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) ("\r")
• U+2028 LINE SEPARATOR
• U+2029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR

This effectively means the dot will match any character on the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). To allow it to match astral characters, the "u" (unicode) flag should be used. Using both flags in conjunction allows the dot to match any Unicode character, without exceptions.

You cannot change this property directly.

Examples

Using dotAll

var str1 = 'bar\nexample foo example'; 

var regex1 = new RegExp('bar.example','s');

console.log(regex1.dotAll); // Output: true

console.log(str1.replace(regex1,'')); // Output: foo example

var str2 = 'bar\nexample foo example';

var regex2 = new RegExp('bar.example');

console.log(regex2.dotAll); // Output: false

console.log(str2.replace(regex2,'')); // Output: bar
                                      //         example foo example

Specifications

Specification

ECMAScript (ECMA-262)The definition of 'RegExp.prototype.dotAll' in that specification.

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile						Server
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	Node.js
dotAll	Chrome Full support 62	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 78	IE No support No	Opera Full support 49	Safari Full support 12	WebView Android Full support 62	Chrome Android Full support 62	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android Full support 46	Safari iOS Full support 12	Samsung Internet Android Full support 8.0	nodejs Full support 8.10.0 Full support 8.10.0 Full support 8.3.0 Disabled' Disabled' From version 8.3.0: this feature is behind the --harmony runtime flag.

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

User must explicitly enable this feature.'

User must explicitly enable this feature.

See also

• RegExp.lastIndex
• RegExp.prototype.global
• RegExp.prototype.ignoreCase
• RegExp.prototype.multiline
• RegExp.prototype.source
• RegExp.prototype.sticky
• RegExp.prototype.unicode

RegExp.prototype.dotAll by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.