Does JavaScript have a method like “range()” to generate a range within the supplied bounds?

Question

In PHP, you can do...

range(1, 3); // Array(1, 2, 3)
range(\"A\", \"C\"); // Array(\"A\", \"B\", \"C\")

That is, there is a function that l

Answer 1

Using Harmony generators, supported by all browsers except IE11:

var take = function (amount, generator) {
    var a = [];

    try {
        while (amount) {
            a.push(generator.next());
            amount -= 1;
        }
    } catch (e) {}

    return a;
};

var takeAll = function (gen) {
    var a = [],
        x;

    try {
        do {
            x = a.push(gen.next());
        } while (x);
    } catch (e) {}

    return a;
};

var range = (function (d) {
    var unlimited = (typeof d.to === "undefined");

    if (typeof d.from === "undefined") {
        d.from = 0;
    }

    if (typeof d.step === "undefined") {
        if (unlimited) {
            d.step = 1;
        }
    } else {
        if (typeof d.from !== "string") {
            if (d.from < d.to) {
                d.step = 1;
            } else {
                d.step = -1;
            }
        } else {
            if (d.from.charCodeAt(0) < d.to.charCodeAt(0)) {
                d.step = 1;
            } else {
                d.step = -1;
            }
        }
    }

    if (typeof d.from === "string") {
        for (let i = d.from.charCodeAt(0); (d.step > 0) ? (unlimited ? true : i <= d.to.charCodeAt(0)) : (i >= d.to.charCodeAt(0)); i += d.step) {
            yield String.fromCharCode(i);
        }
    } else {
        for (let i = d.from; (d.step > 0) ? (unlimited ? true : i <= d.to) : (i >= d.to); i += d.step) {
            yield i;
        }
    }
});

Examples

take

Example 1.

take only takes as much as it can get

take(10, range( {from: 100, step: 5, to: 120} ) )

returns

[100, 105, 110, 115, 120]

Example 2.

to not neccesary

take(10, range( {from: 100, step: 5} ) )

returns

[100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145]

takeAll

Example 3.

from not neccesary

takeAll( range( {to: 5} ) )

returns

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Example 4.

takeAll( range( {to: 500, step: 100} ) )

returns

[0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500]

Example 5.

takeAll( range( {from: 'z', to: 'a'} ) )

returns

["z", "y", "x", "w", "v", "u", "t", "s", "r", "q", "p", "o", "n", "m", "l", "k", "j", "i", "h", "g", "f", "e", "d", "c", "b", "a"]