instance method String#scan
String#scan(pattern, iterator) → String
Allows iterating over every occurrence of the given pattern (which can be a string or a regular expression). Returns the original string.
Internally just calls String#gsub
passing it pattern
and iterator
as arguments.
Examples
'apple, pear & orange'.scan(/\w+/, alert);
// -> 'apple pear orange' (and displays 'apple', 'pear' and 'orange' in three successive alert dialogs)
Can be used to populate an array:
var fruits = [];
'apple, pear & orange'.scan(/\w+/, function(match) { fruits.push(match[0]) });
fruits.inspect()
// -> ['apple', 'pear', 'orange']
or even to work on the DOM:
'failure-message, success-message & spinner'.scan(/(\w|-)+/, Element.toggle)
// -> 'failure-message, success-message & spinner' (and toggles the visibility of each DOM element)
Note
Do not use the "g"
flag on the regex as this will create an infinite loop.