JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<div id="result"></div>
JavaScript
var myString = "something format_abc something format_def something format_ghi";
var myRegexp = /(?:^|\s)format_(.*?)(?:\s|$)/g;
var match = myRegexp.exec(myString);
//alert(match[1]); // abc
$("#result").html($("#result").html() + match + "<br>");
while (match != null) {
match = myRegexp.exec(myString);
$("#result").html($("#result").html() + match + "<br>");
// matched text: match[0]
// match start: match.index
// capturing group n: match[n]
}