Question

jquery says:
http://docs.jquery.com/JQuery_Core_Style_Guidelines#RegExp

All RegExp operations should be done
using .test() and .exec().
“string”.match() is no longer used.

Why is .match() not recommended?

Answer 1

A major benefit of exec is that it returns capturing groups. For example:

var s = "123456789"
var regex = /.(.)(..)/g;

match:

s.match(regex);
> [1234, 5678]

exec:

regex.exec(s);
> [1234, 2, 34]
regex.exec(s);
> [5678, 6, 78]

Reviewing the coding standards you’ve posted; the document contains many seemingly arbitrary guidelines. Obviously, it aims to achieve mostly consistency, so it is possible exec is preferred because it has more functionality – it has to be used on some occasions, so they might as well use it always.

On a personal note, I don’t care much for guidelines without explanations, so it’s a good thing you’ve asked. In many cases it leads to dogmatic or superstition-based programming.