Parse numbers from a string and push them to an array

Question

So I have a strings like this: '5-2 7-1 8-9 7-4 1-3 1-0 2-8 8-0 6-9', it's always in this form (number, dash, number, space, number, dash, ..)

What I want to do is to transform this in to an array of integers: [5, 2, 7, 1, 8, ..., 9] I had this solution

var str = '5-2 7-1 8-9 7-4 1-3 1-0 2-8 8-0 6-9';
numbers = str.replace('-', ' ').split(' ').map(function(entry) { return parseInt(entry); }); 
// ==> [ 5, 2, 7, 8, 7, 1, 1, 2, 8, 6 ] WTF!!

So I went with this

var str = '5-2 7-1 8-9 7-4 1-3 1-0 2-8 8-0 6-9';
numbers = str.split(' ').join('').split('-').join('').split('').map(function(num) {
 return parseInt(num); 
}); // ==> [ 5, 2, 7, 1, 8, 9, 7, 4, 1, 3, 1, 0, 2, 8, 8, 0, 6, 9 ] All good!

But I don't know why the first solution doesn't work, I know the problem is with the str.replace but I can't figure out why it produce this result

James Allardice · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-26 20:20:26Z

1

The replace method only replaces the first occurrence by default. You need to use a regular expression to replace all of them:

var str = '5-2 7-1 8-9 7-4 1-3 1-0 2-8 8-0 6-9';
numbers = str.replace(/-/g, ' ').split(' ').map(function(entry) { 
//                       ^ The g flag makes the regex match all occurrences
    return parseInt(entry);
});

answered Jun 26, 2014 at 20:20

James Allardice

166k22 gold badges335 silver badges315 bronze badges

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

4 Comments

Kevin L Over a year ago

gah, you beat me to it

elclanrs Over a year ago

How about str.split(/[\s-]/).map(Number)?

James Allardice Over a year ago

@elclanrs - Yep, that would work but doesn't answer the question as to why the OPs attempt doesn't.

Edmeral Over a year ago

@elclanrs that's even better!

Kevin L · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-26 20:21:27Z

0

.replace() only replaces the first occurrence. Use a regex and do a global replace
numbers = str.replace(/-/g, ' ')....

answered Jun 26, 2014 at 20:21

Kevin L

1,0773 gold badges13 silver badges21 bronze badges

Comments

mdlars · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-26 20:28:26Z

0

Here's a jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/uYKV6/10/

var str, strArr, regex;

str = '5-2 7-1 8-9 7-4 1-3 1-0 2-8 8-0 6-9';
regex = new RegExp("-", 'g');
str = str.replace(regex, " ");
strArr = str.split(" ");
console.log(strArr);

answered Jun 26, 2014 at 20:28

mdlars

92910 silver badges17 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Parse numbers from a string and push them to an array

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related