String compare gives wrong output when white space is present in string

Question

I am having two string :

x = "hi hemant how r u"
y = "hi hemant how r u"

If we see, both look same, but

x === y gives false.

I check ascii values of both, this are different

x = "hi hemant how r u"
034 104 105 032 104 101 109 097 110 116 194 160 104 111 119 032 114 032 117 034

y = "hi hemant how r u"

034 104 105 032 104 101 109 097 110 116 032 104 111 119 032 114 032 117 034

the difference is with 194 160 is represent white space in x, while 032 represent white space in y. I want some thing which return true, when i write x === y

https://jsfiddle.net/hemantmalpote/ekzoveew/

can you reproduce this in a fiddle, since I am getting `x === y` as true — gurvinder372, Feb 19 '16 at 08:09
Space will have the same ASCII value everywhere....How is it different? — Mathews Mathai, Feb 19 '16 at 08:10

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

2

Your text is UTF-8 and 194 160 translates to 0x00A0, which is the Unicode code point for non-breaking space. This is not the same as an ordinary space character. See here for a related SO answer and here for an extended Unicode info page on NO-BREAK SPACE.

You could replace all whitespace via regex with ordinary space and compare then, here's a SO answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1496863/2535335 - in your case:

x = x.replace(/\u00a0/g, " ");

edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

Community

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answered Feb 19 '16 at 08:11

Johannes Jander

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Then how both spaces can be different in the same utf8 environment? – Bhojendra Rauniyar Feb 19 '16 at 08:12
Ordinary space and non-breaking space are different characters, what's more to say? – Johannes Jander Feb 19 '16 at 08:13
I wanted to know how they are produced? – Bhojendra Rauniyar Feb 19 '16 at 08:14
In HTML, you could add ` `, if a user copies the text, it would be converted to the Unicode NO-BREAK-SPACE. On Windows, I am sure you can insert it directly via alt-something – Johannes Jander Feb 19 '16 at 08:16
The user is not using See jsfiddle. – Bhojendra Rauniyar Feb 19 '16 at 08:17
Is there any way to convert to ordinary without using regex. – Hemant Malpote Feb 19 '16 at 08:18
@Bhojendra Nepal : I copied text from my code. And first line i am getting is with &nbsp – Hemant Malpote Feb 19 '16 at 08:20
@HemantMalpote I visited that jsfiddle link you provided. I removed all the space and added the space again and it worked. Did you type out those lines by yourself or copy-pasted? – Mathews Mathai Feb 19 '16 at 08:20
@BhojendraNepal see here for an example what I mean: https://jsbin.com/bigogopubo/edit?html,output – Johannes Jander Feb 19 '16 at 08:21
@Mathews Mathai : I copied it . – Hemant Malpote Feb 19 '16 at 08:22
@HemantMalpote you could write a function to encapsulate it like here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/1496863/2535335 – Johannes Jander Feb 19 '16 at 08:22
@HemantMalpote That could be a reason why 2 different space type appeared. – Mathews Mathai Feb 19 '16 at 08:23
@Johannes Jander : thanks, it works with the replacing. – Hemant Malpote Feb 19 '16 at 08:25
I am getting first value from ckeditor and other from db. is there any way to get space instead of &nbsp from ckeditor. – Hemant Malpote Feb 19 '16 at 08:26
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@HemantMalpote unfortunately that seems like a long-standing bug in ckeditor, see [this bug report from 2y ago](http://dev.ckeditor.com/ticket/9929#comment:15) and [this discussion](http://ckeditor.com/forums/CKEditor/Recommendations-for-how-to-deal-with-unwanted-nbsp-entities) – Johannes Jander Feb 19 '16 at 08:30
@Johannes Jander : Ok , Thanks – Hemant Malpote Feb 19 '16 at 08:50
If my answer works for you, please accept (and upvote if you like it) it - this gets me a couple of reputation points and visitors in the future looking for a solution to a similar problem see there is a working answer. Thanks. – Johannes Jander Feb 19 '16 at 09:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 19 '16 at 08:18

I want some thing which return true, when i write x === y

var x = "hi hemant how r u";
var y = "hi hemant how r u";

replace everything matching with space with a normal space " "

x.split( /\s+/ ).join( " " ) == y.split( /\s+/ ).join( " " ) //outputs true

Here I converted anything that matches the space with a single space " " .

var x = "hi hemant how r u";
var y = "hi hemant how r u";
x = x.split( /\s+/ ).join( " " );
y = y.split( /\s+/ ).join( " " );

alert( x == y ); //alerts true
alert( x === y ); //alerts true

String compare gives wrong output when white space is present in string

2 Answers2