why does .replace method use forward slash characters to enclose the first argument?

Posted by Phillip Dodd on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Phillip Dodd
Published on 2012-06-09T22:38:09Z Indexed on 2012/06/09 22:40 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 314

Filed under:

JavaScript

|

syntax

I am working through a book about Javascript and have encountered the following example of code designed to replace the value of the class attribute of a table header HTML element:

th.className = th.className.replace(/asc/,"dsc");
th.className = th.className.replace(/dsc/,"asc");

Why is the first parameter of .replace, the current value of th.className, enclosed in forward slashes instead of quotation marks?

Why not use quotation marks to enclose both parameters, not just the second one?

Thank you in advance for any help given. First time posting, apologies if I duplicated a question despite searching the site before posting.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about JavaScript

CHAT ROOMs 7 by 6

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am looking for chatroom on one page with 7 loggedin users and 6+rows for say 42 users.these users will keep on adding wthnew users.Need urgent help.A PRETTY UNUSUAL Q FOR MOST OF U.What is MORE REQ new features: Usernames are unique to users currently chatting You can see a "currently chatting"… >>> More
Integrating JavaScript Unit Tests with Visual Studio

as seen on Stephen Walter - Search for 'Stephen Walter'
Modern ASP.NET web applications take full advantage of client-side JavaScript to provide better interactivity and responsiveness. If you are building an ASP.NET application in the right way, you quickly end up with lots and lots of JavaScript code. When writing server code, you should be writing… >>> More
Has Javascript developed beyond what it was originally designed to do?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I've been talking with a friend about the purpose of Javascript, when and how it should be used, etc. He quoted that: JavaScript was designed to add interactivity to HTML pages [...] JavaScript gives HTML designers a programming tool HTML authors are normally not programmers… >>> More
PHP, javascript, single quote problems with IE when passing variable from ajax post to javascript fu

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi! I have been trying to get this to work for a while, and I suspect there's an easy solution that I just can't find. My head feels like jelly and I would really appreciate any help. My main page.php makes a .post() to backend.php and fetches a list of cities which it echoes in the form of: <li… >>> More
Javascript in XSL that is loaded by Javascript

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Is there anyway to have javascript run when a XSL sheet has been applied to an XML file by Javascript? I am using a JQuery plugin to apply the sheet to the xml but the javascript that is located inside of the XSL file will not run. I put the Javascript at the bottom of the file and it still does… >>> More

Related posts about syntax

learning to make sense of the syntax of syntax

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
i want to use alter table but the syntax posted here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/alter-table.html is very confusing i do not understand what the [ ] mean or the { } mean or the pipes is there some kind of tutorial that can help me understand this? >>> More
C syntax or binary optimized syntax?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Let's take an simple example of two lines supposedly doing the same thing: if (value = 96 || value < 0) ... or if (value & ~ 95) ... Say 'If's are costly in a loop of thousands of iterations, is it better to keep with the traditional C syntax or better to find a binary optimized one if… >>> More
If you had to reinvent a new syntax for regular expressions, what would it look like?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Regular expressions as they are today are pretty much as concise and compact as they can be. Consequently, they are often criticised for being unreadable and hard to debug. If you had to reinvent a new syntax for regular expressions, what would it look like? Do you prefer the concise syntax they… >>> More
online utility to convert jquery syntax to mootools syntax

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Is there any online utility to convert jquery syntax to mootools syntax? Is there any guideline to convert jquery to mootools? >>> More
Transform XAML syntax from Shorthand to full syntax

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Is there a tool or a simple way to transform XAML code from the shorthand syntax to the full syntax? For example: moving from something like: <_TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Formula.Production, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" to <_TextBox <_TextBox.Text <Binding… >>> More