Does JavaScript have a method like “range()” to ge

Question

In PHP, you can do...

range(1, 3); // Array(1, 2, 3)
range("A", "C"); // Array("A", "B", "C")

That is, there is a function that lets you get a range of numbers or characters by passing the upper and lower bounds.

Is there anything built-in to JavaScript natively for this? If not, how would I implement it?

Answer 1

I found a JS range function equivalent to the one in PHP, and works amazingly great here. Works forward & backward, and works with integers, floats and alphabets!

function range(low, high, step) {
  //  discuss at: http://phpjs.org/functions/range/
  // original by: Waldo Malqui Silva
  //   example 1: range ( 0, 12 );
  //   returns 1: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
  //   example 2: range( 0, 100, 10 );
  //   returns 2: [0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100]
  //   example 3: range( 'a', 'i' );
  //   returns 3: ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i']
  //   example 4: range( 'c', 'a' );
  //   returns 4: ['c', 'b', 'a']

  var matrix = [];
  var inival, endval, plus;
  var walker = step || 1;
  var chars = false;

  if (!isNaN(low) && !isNaN(high)) {
    inival = low;
    endval = high;
  } else if (isNaN(low) && isNaN(high)) {
    chars = true;
    inival = low.charCodeAt(0);
    endval = high.charCodeAt(0);
  } else {
    inival = (isNaN(low) ? 0 : low);
    endval = (isNaN(high) ? 0 : high);
  }

  plus = ((inival > endval) ? false : true);
  if (plus) {
    while (inival <= endval) {
      matrix.push(((chars) ? String.fromCharCode(inival) : inival));
      inival += walker;
    }
  } else {
    while (inival >= endval) {
      matrix.push(((chars) ? String.fromCharCode(inival) : inival));
      inival -= walker;
    }
  }

  return matrix;
}

And here is the minified version:

function range(h,c,b){var i=[];var d,f,e;var a=b||1;var g=false;if(!isNaN(h)&&!isNaN(c)){d=h;f=c}else{if(isNaN(h)&&isNaN(c)){g=true;d=h.charCodeAt(0);f=c.charCodeAt(0)}else{d=(isNaN(h)?0:h);f=(isNaN(c)?0:c)}}e=((d>f)?false:true);if(e){while(d<=f){i.push(((g)?String.fromCharCode(d):d));d+=a}}else{while(d>=f){i.push(((g)?String.fromCharCode(d):d));d-=a}}return i};

Answer 2

I would code something like this:

function range(start, end) {
    return Array(end-start).join(0).split(0).map(function(val, id) {return id+start});
}  

range(-4,2);
// [-4,-3,-2,-1,0,1]

range(3,9);
// [3,4,5,6,7,8]

It behaves similarly to Python range:

>>> range(-4,2)
[-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1]

Answer 3

var range = (l,r) => new Array(r - l).fill().map((_,k) => k + l);

Answer 4

Array.range= function(a, b, step){
    var A= [];
    if(typeof a== 'number'){
        A[0]= a;
        step= step || 1;
        while(a+step<= b){
            A[A.length]= a+= step;
        }
    }
    else{
        var s= 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
        if(a=== a.toUpperCase()){
            b=b.toUpperCase();
            s= s.toUpperCase();
        }
        s= s.substring(s.indexOf(a), s.indexOf(b)+ 1);
        A= s.split('');        
    }
    return A;
}


    Array.range(0,10);
    // [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]

    Array.range(-100,100,20);
    // [-100,-80,-60,-40,-20,0,20,40,60,80,100]

    Array.range('A','F');
    // ['A','B','C','D','E','F')

    Array.range('m','r');
    // ['m','n','o','p','q','r']

Answer 5

As far as generating a numeric array for a given range, I use this:

function range(start, stop)
{
    var array = [];

    var length = stop - start; 

    for (var i = 0; i <= length; i++) { 
        array[i] = start;
        start++;
    }

    return array;
}

console.log(range(1, 7));  // [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
console.log(range(5, 10)); // [5,6,7,8,9,10]
console.log(range(-2, 3)); // [-2,-1,0,1,2,3]

Obviously, it won't work for alphabetical arrays.

Answer 6

It works for characters and numbers, going forwards or backwards with an optional step.

var range = function(start, end, step) {
    var range = [];
    var typeofStart = typeof start;
    var typeofEnd = typeof end;

    if (step === 0) {
        throw TypeError("Step cannot be zero.");
    }

    if (typeofStart == "undefined" || typeofEnd == "undefined") {
        throw TypeError("Must pass start and end arguments.");
    } else if (typeofStart != typeofEnd) {
        throw TypeError("Start and end arguments must be of same type.");
    }

    typeof step == "undefined" && (step = 1);

    if (end < start) {
        step = -step;
    }

    if (typeofStart == "number") {

        while (step > 0 ? end >= start : end <= start) {
            range.push(start);
            start += step;
        }

    } else if (typeofStart == "string") {

        if (start.length != 1 || end.length != 1) {
            throw TypeError("Only strings with one character are supported.");
        }

        start = start.charCodeAt(0);
        end = end.charCodeAt(0);

        while (step > 0 ? end >= start : end <= start) {
            range.push(String.fromCharCode(start));
            start += step;
        }

    } else {
        throw TypeError("Only string and number types are supported");
    }

    return range;

}

jsFiddle.

If augmenting native types is your thing, then assign it to Array.range.

var range = function(start, end, step) {
    var range = [];
    var typeofStart = typeof start;
    var typeofEnd = typeof end;

    if (step === 0) {
        throw TypeError("Step cannot be zero.");
    }

    if (typeofStart == "undefined" || typeofEnd == "undefined") {
        throw TypeError("Must pass start and end arguments.");
    } else if (typeofStart != typeofEnd) {
        throw TypeError("Start and end arguments must be of same type.");
    }

    typeof step == "undefined" && (step = 1);

    if (end < start) {
        step = -step;
    }

    if (typeofStart == "number") {

        while (step > 0 ? end >= start : end <= start) {
            range.push(start);
            start += step;
        }

    } else if (typeofStart == "string") {

        if (start.length != 1 || end.length != 1) {
            throw TypeError("Only strings with one character are supported.");
        }

        start = start.charCodeAt(0);
        end = end.charCodeAt(0);

        while (step > 0 ? end >= start : end <= start) {
            range.push(String.fromCharCode(start));
            start += step;
        }

    } else {
        throw TypeError("Only string and number types are supported");
    }

    return range;

}

console.log(range("A", "Z", 1));
console.log(range("Z", "A", 1));
console.log(range("A", "Z", 3));


console.log(range(0, 25, 1));

console.log(range(0, 25, 5));
console.log(range(20, 5, 5));