.split() regex with capturing parentheses does not work in IE8

Question

I have a regex which splits a string into an array at every space and keeps the space value in each occurrence as follows:

var str = "[This is a test]";
var foo = str.toLowerCase().split(/(\S+\s+)/).filter(function(n) {return n});

This returns the following on all modern browsers:

["[This ", "is ", "a ", "test]"];

But on IE8 all I get is ["test]"];

It seems that IE8 doesn't read the \S regex character correctly. Does anyone know of a workaround for IE8 to reproduce the correct array?

Thanks

`\s` does not include non-breaking whitespace but it seems IE uses one. non-breaking whitespace is: `\xa0`. So you pattern becomes: `([^\s\xa0]+[\s\xa0]+)` — Leri, Feb 27 '14 at 10:01
try [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7935153/regex-match-works-in-ff-chrome-but-not-ie-8) str.replace(/\u00a0/g, ' ') — winterfall, Feb 27 '14 at 10:02
Could anybody explain why this works in Chrome? :) `split` should remove the separator, should it not? — kapa, Feb 27 '14 at 10:23
[I see now](http://devdocs.io/javascript/global_objects/string/split#Example:_Capturing_parentheses), `If separator contains capturing parentheses, matched results are returned in the array.` This seems to be the feature that does not work in IE8. — kapa, Feb 27 '14 at 10:25

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 27 '14 at 10:28

4

I do not see why you're complicating things using split() and a callback. Just match instead of splitting !

/\S+\s*/g

Note: IE8 doesn't support Array.filter().

edited Feb 27 '14 at 10:28

kapa

answered Feb 27 '14 at 10:26

HamZa

1 Answers1