JavaScript search() fails to find "()"

Question

This might seem trivial, but I'm new to JS. I have this piece of code:

alert(elementAction);    
var argumentsBegin = elementAction.search("(");
var argumentsEnd = elementAction.search(")");
alert(argumentsBegin);

elementAction is a string. The problem with the code is it doesn't seem to find the parenthesis. The first alert box shows for example: outer(inner) But the second one doesn't appear at all. All is cool if I replace () with {}, though. Any thoughts why is this not working for me?

Answer 1

Yes: the search() method of strings expects a regular expression as the parameter and is treating the string you're passing as a regular expression pattern, in which parentheses have special meaning. Use indexOf() instead:

alert( elementAction.indexOf("(") ); 

Answer 2

elementAction.search("\\(");

search is regular expression, ( is keyword in regular expression. you have to escape ( to \(, \( in string is "\\("