Javascript - String split does not work well

Question

I am making a script which receives a String and separate it on smaller Strings.

Ex: "This is a long sentence, and I will separate it into smaller parts. Lalala"

It will return "This is a long sentence","and I will separate it into smaller parts","Lalala"

The aim of this is to use Google translator to transform text to speech, but this feature has a limit of about 70-80 chars, so if the string is too large I need to chop it.

First I chop in sentences separated by a dot ("."), then if there are still too long sentences, I split them with the commas (",") and if there are still too long strings I separate them in unique words.

Everything works well until I try to join some words so the audio become more continuous. For some reason the strings separated by commas get joined again. I do not know why.

This is the code:

Edit: Relevant section split out and formatted

function talk(text){
 var audios = document.createElement('audio');
audios.setAttribute('id','audio_speech');
var playlist = new Array()
if(text.length >= 75) {
 playlist = text.split("."); 
 for (var i = 0;i<playlist.length;i++) {
 if (playlist[i].length >= 75) {
 auxarr = playlist[i].split(",");
 //alert(auxarr.length);
 for(var j=0;j<auxarr.length;j++) {
 auxarr2 = auxarr[j].split(" ");
 document.write(auxarr2+"<br>"); 
 if (auxarr[j].length >= 75) {
 auxarr2 = auxarr[j].split(" "); 
 for(var x=0; x < auxarr2.length; x++){
 if(auxarr2[x].length < 50) {
 aux = auxarr2[x];
 while (aux.length < 50 && auxarr2[x+1]) {
 aux = aux + " " + auxarr2[x+1];
 auxarr2.splice(x,1);
 auxarr2[x]=aux; 
 } 
 }
//...

Edit: Full original code

function talk(text)
{
 var audios = document.createElement('audio');
 audios.setAttribute('id','audio_speech');
 var playlist = new Array()
 if(text.length >= 75) {
 playlist = text.split(".");
 for (var i = 0;i<playlist.length;i++) {
 if (playlist[i].length >= 75) {
 auxarr = playlist[i].split(",");
 //alert(auxarr.length);
 for(var j=0;j<auxarr.length;j++) {
 auxarr2 = auxarr[j].split(" ");
 document.write(auxarr2+"<br>");
 if (auxarr[j].length >= 75) {
 auxarr2 = auxarr[j].split(" ");
 for(var x=0; x < auxarr2.length; x++){
 if(auxarr2[x].length < 50) {
 aux = auxarr2[x];
 while (aux.length < 50 && auxarr2[x+1]) {
 aux = aux + " " + auxarr2[x+1];
 auxarr2.splice(x,1);
 }
 auxarr2[x]=aux;
 }
 }
 auxarr_end = auxarr.slice(j+1,auxarr.length);
 auxarr_begin = auxarr.slice(0,j);
 document.write("<br>"+auxarr+"<br> aca"); 
 document.write("<br>"+auxarr_end+"<br> aca1");
 document.write("<br>"+auxarr_begin+"<br> aca2"); 
 auxarr.splice(j,1);
 auxarr_begin = auxarr_begin.concat(auxarr2);
 j = auxarr.length;
 auxarr = auxarr_begin.concat(auxarr_end);
 alert(auxarr);
 }
 }
 //alert("current: "+playlist[i]);
 //alert("current length:"+playlist[i].length);
 //alert("auxarr: "+auxarr);
 playlist_end = playlist.slice(i+1,playlist.length);
 playlist_begin = playlist.slice(0, i);
 playlist.splice(i,1);
 playlist_begin = playlist_begin.concat(auxarr);
 i = playlist.length;
 playlist = playlist_begin.concat(playlist_end);
 //alert("new "+playlist[i]); 
 }
 }
 /*do {
 textAux = text.substring(0, 74);
 text = text.substring(textAux.length, text.length);
 playlist.push(textAux);
 }while(text.length >= 75);*/
 } else {
 playlist.push(text);
 }
 //
 //playlist.push(text);
 /*for(var a=0; a<playlist.length;a++){
 document.write(playlist[a]+"<br>");}*/
 audios.setAttribute('src', 'http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=es&q=' + encodeURIComponent(playlist[0]));
 playlist.splice(0,1);
 audios.load();
 audios.play();
/*
 */
 audios.addEventListener('ended', function(){
 if (playlist[0]){
 audios.setAttribute('src', 'http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=es&q=' + encodeURIComponent(playlist[0]));
 playlist.splice(0,1);
 audios.play();
 }
 }, false);
}
</script>

• Halcyon: Your code sample is too long! Reduce it down and you'll probably find your bug in the process. You have 4, yes 4! nested for-loops, that seems like a really bad thing.

Answer 1

Try this, modify it to work with your constants and parameters.

var LIMIT = 20;
var res = new Array()
//strats with spliting by dot
var dotArr = "This is a long sentence. and I will separate it into smaller parts. Lalala".split(/[.]/);
for (var i = 0; i < dotArr.length; i++) {
 if (dotArr[i].length > LIMIT){
 //only when have to, split by comma
 var comArr = dotArr[i].split(/[,]/);
 for (var j = 0; j < comArr.length; j++) {
 //only when have to and that a space exists, split by space
 if (comArr[j].length > LIMIT && comArr[j].indexOf(" ") != -1 ){
 var spaceArr = comArr[j].split(/[ ]/);
 //accomulate words until we reach the limit and then push the value to res
 for (var k = 0; k < spaceArr.length;){
 var sMerge = spaceArr[k++];
 while (k < spaceArr.length && sMerge.length + spaceArr[k].length + 1 < LIMIT){
 sMerge = sMerge + " " + spaceArr[k];
 k++;
 }
 res.push(sMerge)
 }
 }else{
 res.push(comArr[j]);
 }
 }
 }else{
 res.push(dotArr[i]);
 }
}
//res contain all optimized sentences.