Best way to remove white spaces from a varied formatted string and convert it to array

Question

I have a search like function that takes in a string. I convert this string to array. The string has comma to distinct between two words.

Ideal format:
search-term-entered = xyz, abc, eee, fff

Now if the user follows my format, I can use split and get my array but what if:

search-term-entered = abc, xyz, , ,,, eee
or search-term-entered = , ,, abc, xyz,eee,fff
or something along these lines

If the user uses some other formatting, how do I get rid of extra white spaces? The only thing is can think of is looping through the array and checking whether for white spaces and removing it. Is there an easier method or way?

This is what my getArray looks like
getArray = search-term-entered.split(", ");

Possible duplicate of [how to remove null, undefined, NaN, 0s, falses and empty string from an array in JavaScript?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36076104/how-to-remove-null-undefined-nan-0s-falses-and-empty-string-from-an-array-in) — , Aug 18 '16 at 10:50
It's almost a duplicate, but I'd argue the extra requirement to trim the array terms warrants a new question — Joe, Aug 18 '16 at 10:53
Sidenote, don't split on `", "` (including the space). Split on the comma alone. — Yoshi, Aug 18 '16 at 10:56

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 18 '16 at 10:55

As noted by @RC, you can find examples of how to filter out null / empty strings on this site already. But to also trim the white space you could use the following.

var s = ', ,, abc, xyz,eee,fff'; 
getArray = s.split(",").map(s => s.trim()).filter(s => s);

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 18 '16 at 11:02

2

Simple solution using String.match function:

var str = ', ,, abc, xyz,eee,fff',
    converted = str.match(/\b\w+?\b/g);

console.log(converted);  // ["abc", "xyz", "eee", "fff"]

answered Aug 18 '16 at 11:02

RomanPerekhrest

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Pugazh · Answer 3 · 2016-08-18T11:05:42.257

1

Something like this.

var str = ', ,, abc, xyz,eee,fff';

function GetFilteredArr(_str) {
  var arr = [];
  var temp = _str.split(',');
  temp.filter(function(v) {
    var _v = v.trim();
    if (_v == "")
      return false;
    arr.push(_v);
  });
  return arr;
}

var filterdArr = GetFilteredArr(str);

console.log(filterdArr);

edited Aug 18 '16 at 11:05

answered Aug 18 '16 at 11:00

Pugazh

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 18 '16 at 11:06

0

Another one :P

", ,, abc, xyz,eee,fff".replace(/[, ]+/g, " ").trim().split(" ")

answered Aug 18 '16 at 11:06

sabithpocker

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 18 '16 at 13:17

0

One other way might be

var s = "abc, xyz, , ,,, eee",
    a = s.replace(/(\s*,\s*)+/g,",").split(",");
console.log(a);

answered Aug 18 '16 at 13:17

Redu

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Best way to remove white spaces from a varied formatted string and convert it to array

5 Answers5