regex - Javascript string.match refuses to return an array of more than one match -

i have string expect formatted so:

{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}

my query looks in javascript:

var str = "{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}"; var result = str.match(/^\{list:\[names:([a-za-z,]*)\]\[ages:([0-9,]*)\]\}$/g); 

note: recognize regex pass "ages:,,,", i'm not worried @ moment.

i expecting back:

result[0] = "{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}" result[1] = "a,b,c" result[2] = "1,2,3" 

but no matter seem regular expression, refuses return array of more 1 match, full string (because passes, start):

result = ["{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}"] 

i've looked through bunch of questions on here already, other 'intro' articles, , none of them seem address basic. i'm sure it's foolish i've overlooked, have no idea :(

so difference in how global flag applied in regular expressions in javascript.

in .match, global flag (/g @ end) return array of every incident regular expression matches string. without flag, .match return array of of groupings in string.

eg:

var str = "{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}"; str += str; // removed ^ , $ demonstration purposes var results = str.match(/\{list:\[names:([a-za-z,]*)\]\[ages:([0-9,]*)\]\}/g) console.log(results) // ["{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}", "{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}"] str = "{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:3,4,5]}"; results = str.match(/\{list:\[names:([a-za-z,]*)\]\[ages:([0-9,]*)\]\}/g); console.log(results) //["{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}", "{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:3,4,5]}"] 

now, if remove /g flag:

// leaving str above results = str.match(/\{list:\[names:([a-za-z,]*)\]\[ages:([0-9,]*)\]\}/); console.log(results) //["{list:[names:a,b,c][ages:1,2,3]}", "a,b,c", "1,2,3"] 

and note why regex.exec worked, that because:

if regular expression not include g flag, returns same result regexp.exec(string).