Given a string:
var str1 = "25*5+5*7";
Without using eval
or the constructor function in JavaScript, how would I be able to write a function called "output" that takes in the string and outputs the arithmetic value of the string, which in this case is 160?
Here's a full precedence expression evaluator following the recursive parsing
idea I linked-to in a comment on the OP's question.
To do this, first I wrote a simple BNF grammar for the expressions I wanted to process:
sum = product | sum "+" product | sum "-" product ;
product = term | product "*" term | product "/" term ;
term = "-" term | "(" sum ")" | number ;
This by itself requires a bit of experience to do simply and straightforwardly. If you have no experience with BNF you will find
it incredibly useful for describing complex streams of items like expressions, messages, programming langauges, ...
Using that grammar, I followed the procedure outlined in the other message
to produce the following code. It should be obvious that it is driven by grammar in a dumb mechanical way, and therefore pretty easy to write if you have that grammar.
(Untested. I'm not a JavaScript coder. This will surely contain a few syntax/semantic hiccups. Took me at about 15 minutes to code.)
var SE="Syntax Error";
function parse(str) { // returns integer expression result or SE
var text=str;
var scan=1;
return parse_sum();
function parse_sum() {
var number, number2;
if (number=parse_product()==SE) return SE;
while (true) {
skip_blanks();
if (match("+") {
number2=parse_product();
if (number2==SE) return SE;
number+=number2;
}
else if (match('-')) {
{ number2=parse_product();
if (number2==SE) return SE;
number-=number2;
}
else return number;
}
}
function parse_product() {
var number, number2;
if (number=parse_number()==SE) return SE;
while (true) {
if (match("*") {
number2=parse_term();
if (number2==SE) return SE;
number*=number2;
}
else if (match('/')) {
number2=parse_term();
if (number2==SE) return SE;
number/=number2;
}
else return number;
}
}
function parse_term() {
var number;
skip_blanks();
if (match("(")) {
number=parse_sum();
if (number=SE) return SE;
skip_blanks();
if (!match(")") return SE;
}
else if match("-") {
number= - parse_term();
}
else if (number=parse_number()==SE) return SE;
return number;
}
function skip_blanks() {
while (match(" ")) { };
return;
}
function parse_number() {
number=0;
if (is_digit()) {
while (is_digit()) {}
return number;
}
else return SE;
}
var number;
function is_digit() { // following 2 lines are likely wrong in detail but not intent
if (text[scan]>="0" && text[scan]<="9") {
number=number*10+text[scan].toInt();
return true;
}
else return false;
}
function match(c) {
if (text[scan]==c)
{ scan++; return true }
else return false;
}
}
It is straightforward to code such parsers/evaluators. See my SO answer on how to build a parser (which links to how to how to build an evaluator).
This is a simple parser with * over + precedence. I've tried to make it as educational as possible. I'll leave it up to you to add division and subtraction. Or brackets, if you're particularly ambitious.
function parse(str) {
var signs = ["*", "+"]; // signs in the order in which they should be evaluated
var funcs = [multiply, add]; // the functions associated with the signs
var tokens = str.split(/\b/); // split the string into "tokens" (numbers or signs)
for (var round = 0; round < signs.length; round++) { // do this for every sign
alert("tokens at this point: " + tokens.join(" "));
for (var place = 0; place < tokens.length; place++) { // do this for every token
if (tokens[place] == signs[round]) { // a sign is found
var a = parseInt(tokens[place - 1]); // convert previous token to number
var b = parseInt(tokens[place + 1]); // convert next token to number
var result = funcs[round](a, b); // call the appropriate function
alert("calculating: " + a + signs[round] + b + "=" + result);
tokens[place - 1] = result.toString(); // store the result as a string
tokens.splice(place--, 2); // delete obsolete tokens and back up one place
}
}
}
return tokens[0]; // at the end tokens[] has only one item: the result
function multiply(x, y) { // the functions which actually do the math
return x * y;
}
function add(x, y) { // the functions which actually do the math
return x + y;
}
}
var str = "25*5+5*7";
alert("result: " + str + " = " + parse(str));
You can use the expression parser of math.js:
var str1= "25*5+5*7"
document.write(str1 + ' = ' + math.eval(str1));
// output: "25*5+5*7 = 160"
<script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjs/2.1.1/math.min.js"></script>
You can create a new script:
function parse(str) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.text = "window.result = " + str;
document.body.appendChild(s); // Run script
document.body.removeChild(s); // Clean up
return result; // Return the result
}
document.body.innerHTML = parse("5*5+5*5");
Or use event handler content attributes:
function parse(str) {
var el = document.createElement('div');
el.setAttribute('onclick', "this.result = " + str);
el.onclick(); // Run script
return el.result; // Return the result
}
document.body.innerHTML = parse("5*5+5*5");
Note these approaches are unsafe and as evil as eval
but uglier. So I don't recommend them.