CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptstringsplitemail-validation
Cycs
Cycs

Reputation: 239

Splitting a string at special character with JavaScript

I am trying to "intelligently" pre-fill a form, I want to prefill the firstname and lastname inputs based on a user email address, so for example,

[email protected] RETURNS Jon Doe
[email protected] RETURN Jon Doe
[email protected] RETURNS Jon Doe

I have managed to get the string before the @, 

var email = letters.substr(0, letters.indexOf('@'));

But cant work out how to split() when the separator can be multiple values, I can do this, 

email.split("_")

but how can I split on other email address valid special characters?

Upvotes: 8

Views: 46931

Answers (8)

furydevoid
furydevoid

Reputation: 1401

Regular Expressions --

email.split(/[_\.-]/)

This one matches (therefore splits at) any of (a character set, indicated by []) _, ., or -.

Here's a good resource for learning regular expressions: http://qntm.org/files/re/re.html

Upvotes: 1

ymutlu
ymutlu

Reputation: 6715

If you define your seperators, below code can return all alternatives for you. 

var arr = ["_",".","-"];

var email = letters.substr(0, letters.indexOf('@'));
arr.map(function(val,index,rest){
   var r = email.split(val);
   if(r.length > 1){
     return r.join(' ');
   }
   return "";
}
);

Upvotes: 0

Kara Brightwell
Kara Brightwell

Reputation: 2564

You can split a string using a regular expression. To match ., _ or -, you can use a character class, for example [.\-_]. The syntax for regular expressions in JavaScript is /expression/, so your example would look like:

email.split(/[\.\-_]/);

Note that the backslashes are to prevent . and - being interpreted as special characters. . is a special character class representing any character. In a character class, - can be used to specify ranges, such as [a-z].

If you require a dynamic list of characters to split on, you can build a regular expression using the RegExp constructor. For example:

var specialChars = ['.', '\\-', '_'];
var specialRegex = new RegExp('[' + specialChars.join('') + ']');
email.split(specialRegex);

More information on regular expressions in JavaScript can be found on MDN.

Upvotes: 1

David Laberge
David Laberge

Reputation: 16061

I created a jsFiddle to show how this could be done :

function printName(email){
    var name = email.split('@')[0];
    // source : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/650022/how-do-i-split-a-string-with-multiple-separators-in-javascript
    var returnVal = name.split(/[._-]/g);
    return returnVal;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/ts6nx9tt/1/

Upvotes: 0

Kami
Kami

Reputation: 19417

You are correct that you need to use the split function.

Split function works by taking an argument to split the string on. Multiple values can be split via regular expression. For you usage, try something like

var re = /[\._\-]/;
var split = email.split(re, 2);

This should result in an array with two values, first/second name. The second argument is the number of elements returned.

Upvotes: 0

Alexander O'Mara
Alexander O'Mara

Reputation: 60577

JavaScript's string split method can take a regex.

For example the following will split on ., -, and _.

"i-am_john.doe".split(/[.\-_]/)

Returning the following.

["i", "am", "john", "doe"]

Upvotes: 20

Zyga
Zyga

Reputation: 2427

You can use regex to do it, just provide a list of the characters in square brackets and escape if necessary.

email.split("[_-\.]");

Is that what you mean?

Upvotes: 0

Guffa
Guffa

Reputation: 700562

You can use a regular expression for what you want to split on. You can for example split on anything that isn't a letter:

var parts = email.split(/[^A-Za-z]/);

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/Guffa/xt3Lb9e6/

Upvotes: 4

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