RegExp.exec() returns NULL sporadically [duplicate]

Oh, here it is. Because you’re defining your regex global, it matches first cat, and on the second pass of the loop dog. So, basically you just need to reset your regex (it’s internal pointer) as well. Cf. this:

var w = new Array("I have a cat and a dog too.", "I have a cat and a dog too.", "I have a cat and a dog too.", "I have a cat and a dog too.");

for (var i in w) {
    var rx = /(cat|dog)/gi;
    var m = null;
    m = rx.exec(w[i]);
    if(m){
        document.writeln("<p>" + i + "<br/>INPUT: " + w[i] + "<br/>MATCHES: " + w[i].length + "</p>");
    }else{
        document.writeln("<p><b>" + i + "<br/>'" + w[i] + "' FAILED.</b><br/>" + w[i].length + "</p>");
    }
    document.writeln(m);
}