Converting user input string to regular expression

Question

I am designing a regular expression tester in HTML and JavaScript. The user will enter a regex, a string, and choose the function they want to test with (e.g. search, match,

Answer 1

I use eval to solve this problem.

For example:

    function regex_exec() {

        // Important! Like @Samuel Faure mentioned, Eval on user input is a crazy security risk, so before use this method, please take care of the security risk. 
        var regex = $("#regex").val();

        // eval()
        var patt = eval(userInput);

        $("#result").val(patt.exec($("#textContent").val()));
    }