Evaluating a string as a mathematical expression in JavaScript

Question

How do I parse and evaluate a mathematical expression in a string (e.g. \'1+1\') without invoking eval(string) to yield its numerical value?

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Answer 1

Here is an algorithmic solution similar to jMichael's that loops through the expression character by character and progressively tracks left/operator/right. The function accumulates the result after each turn it finds an operator character. This version only supports '+' and '-' operators but is written to be extended with other operators. Note: we set 'currOp' to '+' before looping because we assume the expression starts with a positive float. In fact, overall I'm making the assumption that input is similar to what would come from a calculator.

function calculate(exp) {
  const opMap = {
    '+': (a, b) => { return parseFloat(a) + parseFloat(b) },
    '-': (a, b) => { return parseFloat(a) - parseFloat(b) },
  };
  const opList = Object.keys(opMap);

  let acc = 0;
  let next = '';
  let currOp = '+';

  for (let char of exp) {
    if (opList.includes(char)) {
      acc = opMap[currOp](acc, next);
      currOp = char;
      next = '';
    } else {
      next += char;
    } 
  }

  return currOp === '+' ? acc + parseFloat(next) : acc - parseFloat(next);
}