Anchors in JavaScript

From the JavaScript Regular Expressions cheat sheet · Basic Patterns · verified Jul 2026

Anchors

Matching positions in text

javascript
^       Start of string
$       End of string
\b      Word boundary
\B      Not a word boundary

// Multi-line mode (m flag)
^       Start of line
$       End of line

// Examples
/^hello/.test("hello world")     // true
/world$/.test("hello world")     // true
/^hello$/.test("hello")          // true (exact match)
/\bcat\b/.test("cat in hat")     // true (whole word)
/\bcat\b/.test("scatter")        // false
/\Bcat/.test("scatter")          // true (inside word)

// Multi-line examples
const text = "line1\nline2"
/^line2/m.test(text)             // true (with m flag)
/^line2/.test(text)              // false (without m flag)
💡 Use ^ and $ together for exact full string match
⚡ Word boundary \b is zero-width - doesn't consume characters
📌 Multi-line flag (m) changes ^ and $ behavior
🟢 \b is useful for matching whole words only
anchorsboundaries

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