Splitting String based on

Question

I have a simple code line:

var myarr = str.split(":");

This works if user enters 1:23

However, it is possible the user can enter one more format: 1.23

Without doing a manual check for strings, is there something I can add to this split function to enter multiple values?

• Pointy: You can split on regular expressions, though that has some issues.
• hiattp: Can you use regex? str.split(/[:.]/)
• Moob: To avoid the issues mentioned by Pointy you could have 2 arrays (one split on ":" and the other on ".") then take the longest.

Answer 1

Use a regular expression

String.split(/[:,.]+/)

Splits on : or , or .

• Madbreaks: @KickingLettuce When in doubt, check the docs: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/…

Answer 2

As is described here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/split

the split method on strings can be passed a regular expression. Regular Expressions are described here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp

This means you can split on anything that you can match with a regular expression. So for example:

var string = 'foo';
var array = string.split(/[:.]/);

will split on any character that is either : or ..