split javascript string to get desired values

Question

I want to extract the date and the username from string using .split() in this particular string:

var str ='<a href="/user/xxspmxx/profile">XxSPMxX</a> on 08/30/2012';

I want XxSPMxX in one variable and 08/30/2012 in the other.

• Diodeus - James MacFarlane: It wasn't before Zoltan edited the question.

Answer 1

Using just split:

var x = str.split('</a> on ');
var name = x[0].split('>')[1];
var date = x[1];

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/Guffa/YUaAT/

Answer 2

I don't think split is the right tool for this job. Try this regex:

var str ='<a href="/user/xxspmxx/profile">XxSPMxX</a> on 08/30/2012',
 name = str.match(/[^><]+(?=<)/)[0],
 date = str.match(/\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{4}/)[0];

Here's the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/5ve7Y/

Answer 3

Another way would be to match using a regular expression, build up a small array to get the parts of the anchor, and then use substring to grab the date.

var str = '<a href="/user/xxspmxx/profile">XxSPMxX</a> on 08/30/2012';
var matches = [];
str.replace(/[^<]*(<a href="([^"]+)">([^<]+)<\/a>)/g, function () {
 matches.push(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1, 4))
});
var anchorText = matches[0][2];
var theDate = str.substring(str.length - 10, str.length);
console.log(anchorText, theDate);

working example here: http://jsfiddle.net/dkA6D/