Multidimensional array separators in Javascript

Question

I've been searching for a more concise way to represent multidimensional arrays in Javascript, so I'd like to find a way to separate an array using multiple separators, along with Javascript's built-in string.split(separator) method.

For example, the string "what, am, I; doing, here, now" would become [["what", "am", "I"],["doing", "here", "now"]].

Is there any concise way to implement a function that does this?

var theString = "what, am, I; doing, here, now";
var theArray = getArray(theString, [",", ";"]); //this should return [["what", "am", "I"],["doing", "here", "now"]].

function getArray(theString, separators){
    //convert a string to a multidimensional array, given a list of separators
}

Adam Rackis · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-08 07:50:21Z

7

LAST EDIT

I was leaving some commas in the words, as @Tom points out. Here's the final code:

var str = "what, am, I; doing, here, now";

var arr = str.split(/\;\s*/g);
for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++){
    arr[i] = arr[i].split(/\,\s*/g);
}
console.log(arr);

AND FIDDLE

First split on the second separator, then split each member in there on the other separator.

var str = "what, am, I; doing, here, now";

var arr = str.split(';');
for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++){
    arr[i] = arr[i].split(' ');
}

LIVE DEMO

Note that you'll have to do a tad bit of cleanup to remove the empty space in the second array, but that should be simple.

EDIT -- I was feeling energetic - here's how you kill that annoying leading space

var str = "what, am, I; doing, here, now";

var arr = str.split(';');
for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++){
    arr[i] = arr[i].replace(/^\s*/, '').split(' ');
}

UPDATED FIDDLE

EDIT - this is why I love SO so much. Per @Nathan, you can just split on the regex and save some trouble

var str = "what, am, I; doing, here, now";

var arr = str.split(/\;\s*/g);
for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++){
    arr[i] = arr[i].split(' ');
}
console.log(arr);

UPDATED FIDDLE

edited Dec 8, 2012 at 7:50

answered Dec 8, 2012 at 6:30

Adam Rackis

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10 Comments

Anderson Green Over a year ago

It would be best if the function would work correctly for any number of separators (not just one or two) - this would offer a greater amount of flexibility.

Adam Rackis Over a year ago

@AndersonGreen - for sure - it should be simple for you to generalize the above code into a function that accepts the delimiteres as parameters :)

Anderson Green Over a year ago

Are there any other concise ways of representing multidimensional arrays in Javascript (besides this one)? I want to avoid "re-inventing the wheel", if possible.

Xymostech Over a year ago

To remove the space, you could also just split on '; ' the first time.

Nathan Wall Over a year ago

You can split on a regex. If you split by /\;\s*/g to begin with, you don't have to replace(/^\s*/, '') later.

|

Tomas Ramirez Sarduy · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-09 19:11:00Z

1

This should work:

var theString = "what, am, I; another, string; doing, here, now";
 //this should return [["what", "am", "I"],["doing", "here", "now"]].

function getArray(theString, separators){
    //Firs split
    var strings = theString.replace(/\s+/g, '').split(separators.pop());
    //Second split
        var sep = separators.pop();
        for (var i = 0; i < strings.length; i++) {
            strings[i] = strings[i].split(sep);
        };
    console.log(strings);
    return strings;
}

var theArray = getArray(theString,["," ,";" ]);

Update:

Now the code should work: http://jsfiddle.net/beTEq/1/

edited Dec 9, 2012 at 19:11

answered Dec 8, 2012 at 6:46

Tomas Ramirez Sarduy

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5 Comments

Xymostech Over a year ago

Did you test this? Because I'm fairly certain this doesn't work.

Adam Rackis Over a year ago

He's right. Even if you include a return strings in the function, it doesn't quite work jsfiddle.net/beTEq

Anderson Green Over a year ago

@TomSarduy The function "getArray" returns undefined, but it should return the variable strings as well as printing it to the console. All you need to do now is add return strings; after the last line in the function getArray, so that it will work correctly.

Tomas Ramirez Sarduy Over a year ago

@AndersonGreen: Yes, I forgot that, I was very focused in the console output

Anderson Green Over a year ago

@TomSarduy Also, it appears that it won't work when there are more than two separators - it might be fairly easy to fix this, though.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:29:22Z

0

I figured out a solution that can handle any number of separators, based on this answer here.

function getArray(theString, separators) {
    separators = separators.reverse();
    var theArray = theString.split(separators[0]);
    for (var j = 1; j < separators.length; j++) {
        theArray = theArray.map(function mapper(v, i, a) {
            if (typeof v == "string") {
                return v.split(separators[j]);
            } else {
                return v.map(mapper);
            }
        });
    }
    return theArray;
}

console.log(JSON.stringify(getArray("A, b, c; d, e, f;g,h,i'a, b, c;d,e,f", [",", ";", "'"])));
//this will write [[["A"," b"," c"],[" d"," e"," f"],["g","h","i"]],[["a"," b"," c"],["d","e","f"]]] to the console.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:29

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered May 12, 2013 at 4:20

Anderson Green

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