[JavaScript] String.prototype

Back in 2011, I started learning JavaScript. I'm still learning but haven't moved beyond ES3, largely because that's the dialect I'm using for most of my server-side scripting. In other words, Microsoft JScript (gasp, shock, horrors, gevalt etc.)

Most of the rest of what I do at the moment is using C#. A while back I went looking for a way to extend my C# programs with scripting and found ClearScript. I've been using it to great effect for the last 3 years in the vast majority of my work projects. I've even written a JScript-on-steroids which exposes large chunks of C# to JScript and permits the writing of some very powerful scripts.

In the next few postings I'll be discussing some of the interesting things I've discovered. For a lot of folk, it'll be old hat ... so old that mice are living in it. But, who knows, maybe someone will find a use for some of it, or be able to adapt it to newer dialects.

toProperCase()

String.prototype.toProperCase = function () {
  return this.replace(/\w\S*/g, function (txt) {
    return String(txt.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + txt.substr(1).toLowerCase());
  });
};

I found this on StackOverflow. It attempts to proper-case (title-case) every word in a string. I don't use it often but it was an interesting find.

after()

String.prototype.after = function (a, including) {
  including = including || false;
  a = this.indexOf(a);
  return -1 === a ? String(this) : String(this.substr(a + (including ? 0 : 1)));
};

A staple, this gives whatever is after a substring in a string. The substring can be included or excluded for the result.

before()

String.prototype.before = function (a, including) {
  including = including || false;
  a = this.indexOf(a);
  return -1 === a ? String(this) : String(this.substr(0, a + (including ? 1 : 0)));
};

Another staple, this gives whatever is before a substring in a string. Again, the substring can be included or excluded for the result.

stripChars()

String.prototype.stripChars = function (chars, cnt) {
  var i,
  j;
  cnt = cnt || 0;
  var answer = this;
  for (i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
    var chr = chars.charAt(i);
    if (cnt === 0) {
      var pat = new RegExp(chr, "g");
      answer = answer.replace(pat, "");
    } else {
      for (j = 0; j < cnt; j++) {
        answer = answer.replace(chr, "");
      }
    }
  }
  return String(answer);
};

I don't use this often, but it has been useful. It removes each element of chars from the string. If cnt is undefined or zero, all are removed. If cnt is 1 or more, then that many are removed.

between()

String.prototype.between = function (begin, end, including) {
  including = including || false;
  var left = this.indexOf(begin);
  if (left < 0) {
    return String('');
  }
  left += begin.length;
  var right = typeof end === 'undefined' ? this.length : this.indexOf(end, left);
  if (right < 0) {
    return String('');
  }
  return including ? String(begin + this.substring(left, right) + end) : String(this.substring(left, right));
};

There are various ways of pulling SGML and other markups apart. This one, in various languages, has been in the toolkit for years. This variant permits excluding or including the delimiters. Apart from that, it isn't smart -- "drooling singing".between("droo","ing") gives l

endswith()

String.prototype.endswith = function (str) {
  return this.indexOf(str) !== -1 && this.indexOf(str) === this.length - str.length;
};

Returns true if the strings ends with contents of str otherwise false. Has helped with detecting filetypes in filenames.

toSqlString()

String.prototype.toSqlString = function () {
  return String("'" + String(this).replace(/'/g, "''") + "'");
};

This puts a single quote at the start and end of the string and doubles any embedded single quotes. I use this in combination with .questionMarkIs() to format SQL statements.

toArrayOfLines

String.prototype.toArrayOfLines = function () {
  return this.split(/\r\n|\r|\n/g);
};

Splitting a text file to lines is something I do a lot of. This is the functional variant of code I have in almost every script written over the last 7 years.

questionMarkIs

String.prototype.questionMarkIs = function (val) {
  return String(this.replace("?", val));
};

For a while I was doing all kinds of weird things to build SQL queries. Lately I've taken to simply putting question marks in and then replacing them with the value (with or without .toSqlString()).

That should do for now. Enjoy!

© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2018