I need to split a keyword string and turn it into a comma delimited string. However, I need to get rid of extra spaces and any commas that the user has already input.
var keywordString = "ford tempo, with,,, sunroof";
Output to this string:
ford,tempo,with,sunroof,
I need the trailing comma and no spaces in the final output.
Not sure if I should go Regex or a string splitting function.
Anyone do something like this already?
I need to use javascript (or JQ).
EDIT (working solution):
var keywordString = ", ,, ford, tempo, with,,, sunroof,, ,";
//remove all commas; remove preceeding and trailing spaces; replace spaces with comma
str1 = keywordString.replace(/,/g , '').replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '').replace(/[\s,]+/g, ',');
//add a comma at the end
str1 = str1 + ',';
console.log(str1);
You will need a regular expression in both cases. You could split and join the string:
str = str.split(/[\s,]+/).join();
This splits on and consumes any consecutive white spaces and commas. Similarly, you could just match and replace these characters:
str = str.replace(/[\s,]+/g, ',');
For the trailing comma, just append one
str = .... + ',';
If you have preceding and trailing white spaces, you should remove those first.
Reference: .split
, .replace
, Regular Expressions
In addition to Felix Kling's answer
If you have preceding and trailing white spaces, you should remove
those first.
It's possible to add an "extension method" to a JavaScript String
by hooking into it's prototype. I've been using the following to trim preceding and trailing white-spaces, and thus far it's worked a treat:
// trims the leading and proceeding white-space
String.prototype.trim = function()
{
return this.replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '');
};
In ES6:
var temp = str.split(",").map((item)=>item.trim());
I would keep it simple, and just match anything not allowed instead to join on:
str.split(/[^a-zA-Z-]+/g).filter(v=>v);
This matches all the gaps, no matter what non-allowed characters are in between. To get rid of the empty entry at the beginning and end, a simple filter for non-null values will do. See detailed explanation on regex101.
var str = ", ,, ford, tempo, with,,, sunroof,, ,";
var result = str.split(/[^a-zA-Z-]+/g).filter(v=>v).join(',');
console.info(result);
If you just want to split, trim and join keeping the whitespaces, you can do this with lodash:
// The string to fix
var stringToFix = "The Wizard of Oz,Casablanca,The Green Mile";
// split, trim and join back without removing all the whitespaces between
var fixedString = _.map(stringToFix.split(','), _.trim).join(' == ');
// output: "The Wizard of Oz == Casablanca == The Green Mile"
console.log(fixedString);
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/lodash/4.16.3/lodash.min.js"></script>