Split string into array between to characters?

Question

So I'm trying to split string that I have in some not regular way. I tried to do something with regular expressions but I'm not so much into regex to invent something like that.

Basically I have a string that look like this:

var links = "<a>4</a><b><c><d><e><f>";

And I wanna use a .split() js method to recieve them in array like so:

["<a>4</a>", "<b>", "<c>", "<d>", "<e>", "<f>"]

So it's obviously that I need to split them on >< characthers but if I do this:

links.split("><");

They are gonna split in the way I wanna but I'm gonna loose the > and < signs. example:

["<a>4</a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f>"]

This is not good solution for me.

So basically my question is: Is it possible to make some kind solution with regex or something else to get array result as I imagined?

Denys Séguret · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-30 08:32:14Z

2

A quick and clean method would be to use match instead of split :

var matches = links.match(/<.+?>(?=<|$)/g)

For your string it gives

["<a>4</a>", "<b>", "<c>", "<d>", "<e>", "<f>"]

Be careful that using regular expressions with a non regular language like HTML is dangerous. It's often OK for simple things but it's also limited and you may encounter surprises, for example if you want to apply it to nested elements.

answered Jun 30, 2014 at 8:32

Denys Séguret

384k90 gold badges813 silver badges780 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

dzordz Over a year ago

This is from my opinion better solution. I just did not used .match() so much and I did not thinked about that. Thank you!

Cerbrus · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-30 08:29:01Z

1

A quick'n dirty method would be to add a delimiter between the ><, with a regex replace, and then to split on that delimiter:

var links = "<a>4</a><b><c><d><e><f>";
links.replace(/></g, '>|<').split('|');

Result:

["<a>4</a>", "<b>", "<c>", "<d>", "<e>", "<f>"]

Just make sure the delimiter you chose doesn't occur in the string itself.
(You can use longer strings as delimiters, like: "|-|".)

answered Jun 30, 2014 at 8:29

Cerbrus

73.3k19 gold badges138 silver badges151 bronze badges

2 Comments

dzordz Over a year ago

Yea, that is in fact the quick'n'dirty solution which is not so complicated but I simply did not came up to this! Point definately!

Cerbrus Over a year ago

Yea, it works, and is simple to understand, but @dystroy's solution is probably more efficient ;-) Thanks for the +1

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Split string into array between to characters?

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related