Advanced JavaScript split

Question

I have to split this string here in JavaScript:

 hl=windows xp \"windows xp\"

to three words.

I used:

 keywords = keywords.split(/ /);

But then i got 4 words:

windows
xp
\"windows
xp\"

How could i split this string to just 3 words?

EDIT: and how do i remove the \".

Do you have single quotes or double quotes around the string? The hl=... line is missing these quotes. — outis
– outis, Commented Dec 29, 2009 at 1:51

Gumbo · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-29 03:58:30Z

2

Here’s a simple one:

keywords = keywords.match(/"[^"]*"|\w+/g).map(function(val) {
    if (val.charAt(0) == '"' && val.charAt(val.lenngth-1) == '"') {
        val = val.substr(1, val.length-2);
    }
    return val;
});

answered Dec 29, 2009 at 3:58

Gumbo

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5 Comments

ajsie Over a year ago

it works excellent. but how do u write it as a function so i can put a string and get out an array?

ajsie Over a year ago

it didnt work on åäö and digits so i changed the \w to [a-öA-Ö0-9]

Gumbo Over a year ago

You can also use \S instead of \w.

ajsie Over a year ago

is there an easy way of rewriting this to a function?

Gumbo Over a year ago

Put everything into a function like function splitKeywords(keywords) { … } and replace keywords = with return.

barkmadley · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-29 03:39:59Z

2

function split(s, on) {
    var words = [];
    var word = "";
    var instring = false;
    for (var i = 0; i < s.length; i++) {
        var c = s.charAt(i);
        if (c == on && !instring) {
            words.push(word);
            word = "";
        } else {
            if (c != '"')
                word += c;
        }
        if (c == '"') instring = !instring;
    }
    if (word != '') words.push(word); //dangling word problem solved
    return words;
}

and a usage example that fits the OP's example

var hl = "windows xp \"windows xp\"";
split(hl, " "); // returns ["windows","xp","windows xp"]

edited Dec 29, 2009 at 3:39

answered Dec 29, 2009 at 1:55

barkmadley

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2 Comments

ajsie Over a year ago

isnt it better to just use an appropiate regular expression in split()?

barkmadley Over a year ago

the problem with the regular expression approach is that your problem is not regular enough for regular expression to easily express. fixed the dangling word issue, thats what i get for not testing

sworoc · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-29 04:20:15Z

2

hl="windows xp \"windows xp\""

var results = hl.split(/ /);

for(var s in results) {
    try {
        while (results[s].search("\"") > -1) {
            results.splice(s, 1);
        }
    } catch(e) {}
}

var quoted = hl.match(/"[^"]*"/g); //matches quoted strings

for(var s in quoted) {
    results.push(quoted[s]);
}

//results = ["windows", "xp", ""windows xp""]

edit, a one liner:

var results = hl.match(/\w+|"[^"]*"/g).map(function(s) {
    return s.replace(/^"+|"+$/g, "")
});

edited Dec 29, 2009 at 4:20

answered Dec 29, 2009 at 3:06

sworoc

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6 Comments

ajsie Over a year ago

isnt it better to just use an appropiate regular expression in split()?

outis Over a year ago

Believe it or not, some things are tricky to do with regexps (but see Gumbo's answer).

ajsie Over a year ago

what does all the letters after the / do? eg /g. i cant find it in any regexp explanations

ajsie Over a year ago

and how do i use your online if i got a string = "mac os" windows

sworoc Over a year ago

It means that it is a global, basically find all matches in the string.

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