How do I split a string with multiple separators in javascript?

Question

How do I split a string with multiple separators in JavaScript? I\'m trying to split on both commas and spaces but, AFAIK, JS\'s split function only supports one separator.

Answer 1

Here is a new way to achieving same in ES6:

function SplitByString(source, splitBy) {
  var splitter = splitBy.split('');
  splitter.push([source]); //Push initial value

  return splitter.reduceRight(function(accumulator, curValue) {
    var k = [];
    accumulator.forEach(v => k = [...k, ...v.split(curValue)]);
    return k;
  });
}

var source = "abc,def#hijk*lmn,opq#rst*uvw,xyz";
var splitBy = ",*#";
console.log(SplitByString(source, splitBy));

Please note in this function:

• No Regex involved
• Returns splitted value in same order as it appears in source

Result of above code would be:

Answer 2

Starting from @stephen-sweriduk solution (that was the more interesting to me!), I have slightly modified it to make more generic and reusable:

/**
 * Adapted from: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/650022/how-do-i-split-a-string-with-multiple-separators-in-javascript
*/
var StringUtils = {

  /**
   * Flatten a list of strings
   * http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Flatten_a_list
   */
  flatten : function(arr) {
    var self=this;
    return arr.reduce(function(acc, val) {
        return acc.concat(val.constructor === Array ? self.flatten(val) : val);
    },[]);
  },

  /**
   * Recursively Traverse a list and apply a function to each item
   * @param list array
   * @param expression Expression to use in func
   * @param func function of (item,expression) to apply expression to item
   *
   */
  traverseListFunc : function(list, expression, index, func) {
    var self=this;
    if(list[index]) {
        if((list.constructor !== String) && (list[index].constructor === String))
            (list[index] != func(list[index], expression)) ? list[index] = func(list[index], expression) : null;
        (list[index].constructor === Array) ? self.traverseListFunc(list[index], expression, 0, func) : null;
        (list.constructor === Array) ? self.traverseListFunc(list, expression, index+1, func) : null;
    }
  },

  /**
   * Recursively map function to string
   * @param string
   * @param expression Expression to apply to func
   * @param function of (item, expressions[i])
   */
  mapFuncToString : function(string, expressions, func) {
    var self=this;
    var list = [string];
    for(var i=0, len=expressions.length; i<len; i++) {
        self.traverseListFunc(list, expressions[i], 0, func);
    }
    return self.flatten(list);
  },

  /**
   * Split a string
   * @param splitters Array of characters to apply the split
   */
  splitString : function(string, splitters) {
    return this.mapFuncToString(string, splitters, function(item, expression) {
      return item.split(expression);
    })
  },

}

and then

var stringToSplit = "people and_other/things";
var splitList = [" ", "_", "/"];
var splittedString=StringUtils.splitString(stringToSplit, splitList);
console.log(splitList, stringToSplit, splittedString);

that gives back as the original:

[ ' ', '_', '/' ] 'people and_other/things' [ 'people', 'and', 'other', 'things' ]

Answer 3

I find that one of the main reasons I need this is to split file paths on both / and \. It's a bit of a tricky regex so I'll post it here for reference:

var splitFilePath = filePath.split(/[\/\\]/);

Answer 4

I will provide a classic implementation for a such function. The code works in almost all versions of JavaScript and is somehow optimum.

• It doesn't uses regex, which is hard to maintain
• It doesn't uses new features of JavaScript
• It doesn't uses multiple .split() .join() invocation which require more computer memory

Just pure code:

var text = "Create a function, that will return an array (of string), with the words inside the text";

println(getWords(text));

function getWords(text)
{
    let startWord = -1;
    let ar = [];

    for(let i = 0; i <= text.length; i++)
    {
        let c = i < text.length ? text[i] : " ";

        if (!isSeparator(c) && startWord < 0)
        {
            startWord = i;
        }

        if (isSeparator(c) && startWord >= 0)
        {
            let word = text.substring(startWord, i);
            ar.push(word);

            startWord = -1;
        }
    }

    return ar;
}

function isSeparator(c)
{
    var separators = [" ", "\t", "\n", "\r", ",", ";", ".", "!", "?", "(", ")"];
    return separators.includes(c);
}

You can see the code running in playground: https://codeguppy.com/code.html?IJI0E4OGnkyTZnoszAzf

Answer 5

Not the best way but works to Split with Multiple and Different seperators/delimiters

html

<button onclick="myFunction()">Split with Multiple and Different seperators/delimiters</button>
<p id="demo"></p>

javascript

<script>
function myFunction() {

var str = "How : are | you doing : today?";
var res = str.split(' | ');

var str2 = '';
var i;
for (i = 0; i < res.length; i++) { 
    str2 += res[i];

    if (i != res.length-1) {
      str2 += ",";
    }
}
var res2 = str2.split(' : ');

//you can add countless options (with or without space)

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = res2;
</script>

Answer 6

You could just lump all the characters you want to use as separators either singularly or collectively into a regular expression and pass them to the split function. For instance you could write:

console.log( "dasdnk asd, (naks) :d skldma".split(/[ \(,\)]+/) );

And the output will be:

["dasdnk", "asd", "naks", ":d", "skldma"]