Escape the asterisk, when used in a string (javascript)

Question

I am trying to search for any object key that has the value of "*" Not the wildcard character, but the string "*".

How do I escape the asterisk in the following code? currently (and rightly so) this returns every property in the object.

keys = Object.keys(fullListObj).filter((k) => fullListObj[k] === 'n/a' || '*');

wow. I didnt realise it would be that simple. If you could answer the question with this, and a brief explanation of why, I will make it as accepted and correct. — Yenmangu, Sep 16 '22 at 20:22
because it is `(fullListObj[k] === 'n/a') || '*'` The code is not saying is it one of these two values. It is saying if it matches `'n/a')` string or this string is truthy. That string is always going to be truthy so everything is not going to be filtered out. — epascarello, Sep 16 '22 at 20:24

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 16 '22 at 20:22

2

I think that your error was that you forgot to add this check fullListObj[k] === "*" What you did is you asked if fullListObj[k] === "n/a" or "*" and "*" is a string that is not empty so this will always evaluate to true.

You should change it to this:

keys = Object.keys(fullListObj).filter(
  (k) => fullListObj[k] === "n/a" || fullListObj[k] === "*"
);

answered Sep 16 '22 at 20:22

EkkoKo

214
1
5

thankyou for the explanation, I will mark it as correct as soon as SO allows me to. – Yenmangu Sep 16 '22 at 20:23

Escape the asterisk, when used in a string (javascript)

1 Answers1