Reword m flag description

[DanKaplanSES]

Description

Reword m flag description

Motivation

I didn't understand what m meant from this page's description, so I reworded it. Hopefully this is more clear.

Additional details

Related issues and pull requests

[github-actions]

Preview URLs

• /en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_expressions
• /en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Regular_expressions

(comment last updated: 2025-01-24 18:14:58)

[Josh-Cena]

How do you like this wording? Mostly want to align with dotAll

[DanKaplanSES]

How do you like this wording? Mostly want to align with dotAll

I think I should share context that led me to submit this PR: I've read this table many times before, but I never really understood what the m flag did. I think that's because whenever I looked up ^ or $, it's always explained in terms of lines.

So whenever I read Allows ^ and $ to match next to newline characters. (the original wording), I always wondered, "Isn't that the way it always works?"

I now know that ^ and $ match the beginning/end of the entire string by default; it's the m flag that makes these work on every line.

The new wording is, Allows ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line. I think that's a big improvement over the original, but I still would be left wondering, "Isn't that the way it always works?"

What would you think about changing it to Allows ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line instead of the entire string.? From my perspective, it seems like the best of both worlds. That said, even without my suggestion, your modification is a big improvement, so I'll defer to you.

Thanks as always!

[Josh-Cena]

I'm okay with that. I originally went with your wording, but it was slightly too long and caused the entire table to grow, but if you agree with it let's leave that concern behind.

[Josh-Cena]

I've applied your suggestion—with some minor tweaks. Thanks!

[DanKaplanSES]

@Josh-Cena Looks good! I think those of could be removed from the description without losing any meaning. If you think that's worthwhile, let me know and I'll submit a new PR.

[Josh-Cena]

I decided to add that specifically to disambiguate. Otherwise I personally could read it as "match the start and end of each line, instead of matching the entire string." I just don't want someone to send an issue saying it doesn't do what it says.