That supposes that your values either don't have embedded white spaces or are completely numeric... So it's not really equivalent. > '\t1 ;2 a;3;4;5;6;7;8

That supposes that your values either don't have embedded white spaces or are completely numeric... So it's not really equivalent. > '\t1 ;2 a;3;4;5;6;7;8;9\r\n;10\n'.split(';').map(Function.prototype.call, String.prototype.trim) [ '1', '2 a', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '10' ] > '\t1 ;2 a;3;4;5;6;7;8;9\r\n;10\n'.match(/[^;\s]+/g) [ '1', '2', 'a', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '10' ] > '\t1 ;2 a;3;4;5;6;7;8;9\r\n;10\n'.match(/\d+/g) [ '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '10' ] Edit (re. your edit): > '\t1 ;2 a;3;4;5;6;7;8;9\r\n;10\n'.trim().split(/[;\s]+/) [ '1', '2', 'a', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '10' ]