How to get subset of string using Javascript/JQuery/JSON?

Question

I want to get a subset of a string in Javascript. Currently, I only know how to store the entire string:

I have this as a JSON variable with a callback to foo:

foo({"results":[
"<div id=\"following\"><span><a href=\"http://twitter.com/barackobama\">Obama</a></span></div>"
]})

And this is my callback function:

function foo(o){
  var entireDiv = o.results[0];
}

How do I store just the "< a href = ... > ... < / a> " tag as a string in Javascript?

why not just return the html fragment instead of json. Either that or return the data as json and use a templating plugin to produce the markup. Not sure why your trying to mangle the markup into a json string — redsquare
– redsquare, Commented Jul 26, 2009 at 23:38
it's given to me as json. i don't think i have control over the input. — chris
– chris, Commented Jul 26, 2009 at 23:40

Peter Boughton · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-26 23:58:31Z

4

With jQuery, you can parse in a piece of HTML as the second argument.

So, to update your foo function:

$j = jQuery.noConflict();

function foo(o)
{
    var JustTheLink = $j( 'a' , o.results[0] ).parent().html();
}

Update:
With multiple links to handle, you can do this:

function foo(o)
{
    $j('a',o.results[0]).each(handleSrc);
}

function handleSrc()
{
    console.log(this); // tag
    console.log($j(this).html()); // contents
}

edited Jul 26, 2009 at 23:58

answered Jul 26, 2009 at 23:34

Peter Boughton

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3 Comments

chris Over a year ago

working for me. If there are multiple links inside the html, how do I get the 2nd link, 3rd link, etc... ?

Peter Boughton Over a year ago

See my update for multiple links - doesn't seem a great way of doing things though... there has to be a better solution. :/

chris Over a year ago

yea. since my input is relatively fixed, I know exactly how many links I have, so I figured out I should specify the links using a css selector. Works in my case. Thanks!

Guffa · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-27 00:12:42Z

2

You can use a regular expression to find the anchor tag:

function foo(o){
  var entireDiv = o.results[0];
  var link = /<a.+?\/a>/.exec(entireDiv)[0];
}

edited Jul 27, 2009 at 0:12

answered Jul 26, 2009 at 22:58

Guffa

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1 Comment

chris Over a year ago

Firebug says: "invalid regular expression flag a". Did you get it work for you?

user144049 · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-26 23:17:56Z

0

var link = entireDiv.match(/<a[^>]*>.*<\/a>/);

answered Jul 26, 2009 at 23:17

user144049

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