CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptarraysstringfunction
RcodeNFL
RcodeNFL

Reputation: 9

javascript function takes string and returns array

First I have an array that has two strings in it. 

var Array = ["firstName lastName" , "anotherString"]

I would like to create a function that takes in a string as a parameter and returns an array by breaking up the input string into individual words. So the output in this example would be ["firstName", "lastName"] ?

I know it would look something like this 

var newFun = function(string) {
     return string[0]    // than do something else 
}

Help is greatly appreciated!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 18690

Answers (7)

Ashutosh Tripathi
Ashutosh Tripathi

Reputation: 242

This splitter will take any array with mixed string (strings with spaces and without spaces) and split them in a linear array.

var splitter = (array) => {
return array.reduce((acc, value) => {
   return /\s/.test(value) ?  acc.concat(value.trim().split(' ')) : acc.concat(value) ;

}, []);
}


console.log(splitter(["There is proper space", "ThereIsNoSpace"]));

will output: ['There', 'is', 'proper', 'space', 'thereisnospace']

Upvotes: 0

Panther
Panther

Reputation: 3339

var newFun = function(str) {
 return str.split(" "); 

}

Upvotes: 0

Jay Harris
Jay Harris

Reputation: 4271

So simple, use the String.prototype.split method to split strings into array list.

MDN:

The split() method splits a String object into an array of strings by separating the string into substrings.

 return str.split(' ');

@Christoph: You are using some very bad conventions here. 

var Array
function (string)

Array is a predefined class in javascript and string is pretty close to the predefined class String, so just avoid using them completely.

var arr;
function (str)

Short Method: splits a string with multiple words, handles funky strings that String.prototype.split(' ') can't handle like " firstName Lastname" or just "firstName Lastname". returns an Array

function smartSplit (str) {
    // .trim() remove spaces surround the word
    // /\s+/ split multiple spaces not just one ' '
    return str.trim().split(/\s+/);
}

Test Case:

  // case: split(' ');
  console.log("   firstName    lastName".split(' ')); 
  // result: ["", "", "", "firstName", "", "", "", "lastName"]

  // case: split(/\s+/)
  console.log("   firstName    lastName".split(/\s+/)); 
  // result: ["", "firstName", "lastName"]

  // case: .trim().split(/\s+/)
  console.log(smartSplit("   firstName    lastName")); 
  // result: ["firstName", "lastName"]

Complete Method: same as smartSplit except for it expects an Array as a parameter instead of a String 

function smartSplitAll (strArr) {
  var newArr = [];

  for (var i = 0; i < strArr.length; i++) {
    // expecting string array
    var str = strArr[i].trim();

    // split the string if it has multiple words
    if (str.indexOf(' ') > -1)
        newArr = newArr.concat(str.split(/\s+/));

    else 
        newArr.push(str);
  }

  return newArr;
}

console.log(smartSplitAll(["firstName lastName", "anotherString"]);
// result: ["firstName", "lastName", "anotherString"]

Code lives here: http://jsfiddle.net/8xgzkz16/

Upvotes: 2

Christoph
Christoph

Reputation: 51201

Several comments on your code:

1) the function you are looking for is String.prototype.split:

var string = "firstName lastName";
string.split(" ");
// returns an array: ["firstName","lastName"]

2) don't call your array Array. This is a "reserved word"* for the Array prototype! You are overwriting the prototype, if you do so!

3) Keep the naming of your parameters consistent. This way you avoid error like you did in your code. Handing over an array and call the parameter string is a bad idea. string[0] returns the first symbol of the string, array[0] the first element of your array. Also, name the function appropriately.

Your code should look like this:

var array = ["firstName lastName" , "anotherString"];

function returnSplitString(string){
   return string.split(" ");
}

var splitStringArray = returnSplitString(array[0]);

* In the strict technical sense it is not, because you CAN name your variable that way, however it's a bad idea to do so.

Upvotes: 0

Toni S.
Toni S.

Reputation: 51

You can use the string split method:

function splitString(input) {
    return input.split(" ");
}

Upvotes: 0

RPDeshaies
RPDeshaies

Reputation: 1874

You could do something like this using the split method from the object String

var newFun = function(string) {
     return string[0].split(" ");
}

Voilà !

Upvotes: 0

Ehdrian
Ehdrian

Reputation: 81

The index of [0] is actually the first character of the string.

Do this:

var myString = "My Name";
var splitResult = myString.split(" ");

Will result in:

["My", "Name"]

Upvotes: 1

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