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How do I write a JavaScript program for the question given below

Write a function that takes three (str, c, n) arguments. Start with the end of 'str'. Insert character c after every n characters?
function three(str, c, n){
for(let i =0; i<str.length; i= i+n){
str.slice(i, i+n);
str = str + c;
}
return str;
}
console.log(three("apple", "c", 2));
I think, I am using wrong method.

Start with the end of 'str'. Insert character c after every n characters?
I assumed this means the string needs to end with c after the change. Correct me if I'm wrong.
If that's the case Array.prototype.reverse() and Array.prototype.map() can help here:
function three (str, c, n) {
return str.split('').reverse().map((currentValue, currentIndex, array) => {
if (currentIndex % n === 0) {
return currentValue + c
} else {
return currentValue
}
}).reverse().join('')
}
console.log(three("apple", "c", 2));

You can do something like that :
function three(str, c, n){
// split the string into an array
let letters = str.split('');
// copy to another array that will be the end result to avoid modifying original array
let result = [...letters];
// When we add to the array, it shift the next one and so on, so we need to account for that
let shift = 0;
// we go over each letter
letters.forEach((letter,index) => {
// if we are at the desired location
if(index > 0 && index % n == 0) {
// we add our letter at that location
result.splice(index+shift, 0, c);
// we increase shift by 1
shift++;
}
})
// we return the result by joining the array to obtain a string
return result.join('');
}
console.log(three("apple", "c", 2));//apcplce

Here, it does not work because the Array#slice does not update the actual string but returns a new string.
returns a shallow copy of a portion of an array into a new array object selected from start to end
In my opinion, the easiest way to solve your problem here would be to split the word into characters using the Array#split method, the add the char to each item if the index match the n parameters and finally, re-join the array
function three(str, c, n){
const strAsChar = str.split('')
return strAsChar.map((char, index) => (index - 1) % n === 0 ?
char + c :
char
).join('')
}
console.log(three("apple", "c", 2));

string compression counting the repeated character in javascript

If I have a string a12c56a1b5 then out put should be a13b5c56 as character a is repeated twice so a12 becomes a13
I have tried this:
function stringCompression (str) {
var output = '';
var count = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
count++;
if (str[i] != str[i+1]) {
output += str[i] + count;
count = 0;
}
}
console.log(output); // but it returns `a11121c15161a111b151` instead of `a13b5c56`
}

It is happening because the code is counting the occurrence of each element and appending it, even the numbers in the string.
In this code,
for (var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
count++;
if (str[i] != str[i+1]) {
output += str[i] + count;
count = 0;
}
}
in first iteration i = 0, str[i] = 'a' and str[i + 1] = '1' for the given string a12c56a1b5 which are not equal hence, it will generate the output as a1 for first iteration, then a111 for second iteration since str[i] = '1' and str[i + 1] = '2' now, and so on.
We can achieve this by first separating the characters from the count. Assuming, that there would be characters from a-z and A-Z only followed by the count. We can do something like this, str.match(/[a-zA-Z]+/g) to get the characters: ["a", "c", "a", "b"] and str.match(/[0-9]+/g) to get their counts: ["12", "56", "1", "5"], put them in an object one by one and add if it already exists.
Something like this:
function stringCompression(str) {
var characters = str.match(/[a-zA-Z]+/g);
var counts = str.match(/[0-9]+/g);
var countMap = {};
for (var i = 0; i < characters.length; i++) {
if (countMap[characters[i]]) {
countMap[characters[i]] += parseInt(counts[i]);
} else {
countMap[characters[i]] = parseInt(counts[i]);
}
}
var output = Object.keys(countMap)
.map(key => key + countMap[key])
.reduce((a, b) => a + b);
console.log(output);
}
stringCompression('a12c56a1b5')

Using regex to extract word characters and numbers. Keeps an object map res to track and sum up following numbers. sorts and converts back to a string.
As an example, the for-of loop iteration flow with str=a12c56a1b5:
c='a', n='12'
res['a'] = (+n = 12) + ( (res['a'] = undefined)||0 = 0)
or ie: res['a'] = 12 + 0
c='c', n='56'
res['c'] = 56 + 0
c='a', n='1'
res['a'] = 1 + (res['a'] = 12 from iteration 1.) = 13
c='b', n='5'
res['b'] = 5 + 0
thus res = { 'a': 13, 'c': 56, 'b': 5 } after the for-of loop finishes
function stringCompression (str) {
// build object map with sums of following numbers
const res = {}
for(const [,c,n] of str.matchAll(/(\w+)(\d+)/g))
res[c] = +n + (res[c]||0)
// convert object map back to string
output = Object.entries(res)
output.sort(([a],[b])=>a<b ? -1 : a>b ? 1 : 0)
output = output.map(([a,b])=>`${a}${b}`).join('')
console.log(output); // but it returns `a11121c15161a111b151` instead of `a13b5c56`
}
stringCompression('a12c56a1b5')
[,c,n] = [1,2,3] is equivalent to c=2, n=3. It is called destructuring.
matchAll matches on a regex. It's a relatively new shorthand for calling .exec repeatedly to execute a regular expression that collects all the results that the regular expression matches on.
(\w+)(\d+) is a regex for two capture groups,
\w+ is for one or more alpha characters, \d+ is for one or more digits.
for(const [,c,n] of str.matchAll...) is equivalent to:
for each M of str.matchAll...
const c = M[1], n = M[2]`
res[c]||0 is shorthand for:
"give me res[c] if it is truthy (not undefined, null or 0), otherwise give me 0"
+n uses the unary operator + to force an implicit conversion to a number. JavaScript specs for + unary makes it convert to number, since + unary only makes sense with numbers.
It is basically the same as using Number(n) to convert a string to an number.
Conversion back to a string:
Object.entries converts an object {"key":value} to an array in the form of [ [key1, value1], [key2, value2] ]. This allows manipulating the elements of an object like an array.
.sort sorts the array. I destructured the keys to sort on the keys, so "a" "b" "c" are kept in order.
.map takes an array, and "maps" it to another array. In this case I've mapped each [key,value] to a string key+value, and then taking the final mapped array of key+value strings and joined them together to get the final output.

In case it asks you to sort it alphabetically, I added #user120242's sorting code snippet to #saheb's entire answer (in between Object.keys(countMap) and .map(...). That worked for me. I tried using #user120242's whole answer, but it did not pass all the tests since it did not add the repeated letters for longer strings. But #user120242's answer did work. It just need to be sorted alphabetically and it passed all the test cases in HackerRank. I had this question for a coding assessment (called "Better Coding Compression").
P.S. I also removed checking the capital letters from #saheb's code since that wasn't required for my coding challenge.
Here's how mine looked like:
function stringCompression(str) {
var characters = str.match(/[a-zA-Z]+/g);
var counts = str.match(/[0-9]+/g);
var countMap = {};
for (var i = 0; i < characters.length; i++) {
if (countMap[characters[i]]) {
countMap[characters[i]] += parseInt(counts[i]);
} else {
countMap[characters[i]] = parseInt(counts[i]);
}
}
var output = Object.keys(countMap)
.sort(([a],[b])=>a<b ? -1 : a>b ? 1 : 0)
.map(key => key + countMap[key])
.reduce((a, b) => a + b);
console.log(output);
}
stringCompression('a12c56a1b5')

Replace every nth character equal to "x"

I have a string where common characters are repeated.
For example
x1234,x2345,x3456,x4567,x5678,x6789
I'm trying to replace every nth occurrence of the character "x" starting from the first occurrence with the character "d" using javascript.
The final output should be as follows
d1234,x2345,d3456,x4567,d5678,x6789

You could add a counter and replace by using a remainder for checking.
function replace(string, char, repl, n) {
var i = 0;
return string.replace(new RegExp(char, 'g'), c => i++ % n ? c : repl);
}
console.log(replace('x1234,x2345,x3456,x4567,x5678,x6789', 'x', 'd', 2));
console.log(replace('x1234,x2345,x3456,x4567,x5678,x6789', 'x', 'd', 3));

function replaceNth(str, n, newChar) {
const arr = str.split(',');
return arr.map((item, i) => (i % n === 0) ? item.replace('x', newChar) : item).join(",")
}
const str = 'x1234,x2345,x3456,x4567,x5678,x6789';
// replace for every second string value
console.log(
replaceNth(str, 2, 'd')
);
// replace for every third string value
console.log(
replaceNth(str, 3, 'e')
);

var splittedWords = "x1234,x2345,x3456,x4567,x5678,x6789".split(",")
var result = splittedWords.map((element, index) => index % 2 ? element : "d" + element.substring(1))
console.log(result.join(","))

Can use a regular expression to match a pattern
var str1 = "x1234,x2345,x3456,x4567,x5678,x6789"
var result1 = str1.replace( /x([^x]+(x|$))/g, 'd$1')
console.log(result1)
var str2 = "x1234,x2345,x3456"
var result2 = str2.replace( /x([^x]+(x|$))/g, 'd$1')
console.log(result2)
Explanation of reg exp: RegExper
or can just do a simple split, map, join
var str = "x1234,x2345,x3456,x4567,x5678,x6789"
var result = str.split(",") // split on comma
.map((part,index) => // loop over array
index % 2 === 0 // see if we are even or odd
? "d" + part.substring(1) // if even, remove first character, replace with 1
: part) // if odd, leave it
.join(",") // join it back together
console.log(result)
This assumes that the x is always after the comma, which may or may not be true. If not, then the logic needs to be more complicated.

How do I check if a string is made up exclusively of same-length character groups?

I want to identify strings that are made up exclusively of same-length character groups. Each one of these groups consists of at least two identical characters. So, here are some examples:
aabbcc true
abbccaa false
xxxrrrruuu false (too many r's)
xxxxxfffff true
aa true (shortest possible positive example)
aabbbbcc true // I added this later to clarify my intention
#ilkkachu: Thanks for your remark concerning the repetition of the same character group. I added the example above. Yes, I want the last sample to be tested as true: a string made up of the two letter groups aa, bb, bb, cc.
Is there a simple way to apply this condition-check on a string using regular expressions and JavaScript?
My first attempt was to do something like
var strarr=['aabbcc','abbccaa','xxxrrrruuu',
'xxxxxfffff','aa','negative'];
var rx=/^((.)\2+)+$/;
console.log(strarr.map(str=>str+': '+!!str.match(rx)).join('\n'));
It does look for groups of repeated characters but does not yet pay attention to these groups all being of the same length, as the output shows:
aabbcc: true
abbccaa: false
xxxrrrruuu: true // should be false!
xxxxxfffff: true
aa: true
aabbbbcc: true
negative: false
How do I get the check to look for same-length character groups?

To get all the groups of the same character has an easy regex solution:
/(.)\1*/g
Just repeating the backreference \1 of the character in capture group 1.
Then just check if there's a length in the array of same character strings that doesn't match up.
Example snippet:
function sameLengthCharGroups(str)
{
if(!str) return false;
let arr = str.match(/(.)\1*/g) //array with same character strings
.map(function(x){return x.length}); //array with lengths
let smallest_length = arr.reduce(function(x,y){return x < y ? x : y});
if(smallest_length === 1) return false;
return arr.some(function(n){return (n % smallest_length) !== 0}) == false;
}
console.log("-- Should be true :");
let arr = ['aabbcc','xxxxxfffff','aa'];
arr.forEach(function(s){console.log(sameLengthCharGroups(s)+' : '+ s)});
console.log("-- Should also be true :");
arr = ['aabbbbcc','224444','444422',
'666666224444666666','666666444422','999999999666666333'];
arr.forEach(function(s){console.log(sameLengthCharGroups(s)+' : '+ s)});
console.log("-- Should be false :");
arr = ['abbcc','xxxrrrruuu','a','ab','',undefined];
arr.forEach(function(s){console.log(sameLengthCharGroups(s)+' : '+ s)});
ECMAScript 6 version with fat arrows (doesn't work in IE)
function sameLengthCharGroups(str)
{
if(!str) return false;
let arr = str.match(/(.)\1*/g)
.map((x) => x.length);
let smallest_length = arr.reduce((x,y) => x < y ? x : y);
if(smallest_length === 1) return false;
return arr.some((n) => (n % smallest_length) !== 0) == false;
}
Or using exec instead of match, which should be faster for huge strings.
Since it can exit the while loop as soon a different length is found.
But this has the disadvantage that this way it can't get the minimum length of ALL the lengths before comparing them.
So those with the minimum length at the end can't be found as OK this way.
function sameLengthCharGroups(str)
{
if(!str) return false;
const re = /(.)\1*/g;
let m, smallest_length;
while(m = re.exec(str)){
if(m.index === 0) {smallest_length = m[0].length}
if(smallest_length > m[0].length && smallest_length % m[0].length === 0){smallest_length = m[0].length}
if(m[0].length === 1 ||
// m[0].length !== smallest_length
(m[0].length % smallest_length) !== 0
) return false;
}
return true;
}
console.log("-- Should be true :");
let arr = ['aabbcc','xxxxxfffff','aa'];
arr.forEach(function(s){console.log(sameLengthCharGroups(s)+' : '+ s)});
console.log("-- Should also be true :");
arr = ['aabbbbcc','224444','444422',
'666666224444666666','666666444422','999999999666666333'];
arr.forEach(function(s){console.log(sameLengthCharGroups(s)+' : '+ s)});
console.log("-- Should be false :");
arr = ['abbcc','xxxrrrruuu','a','ab','',undefined];
arr.forEach(function(s){console.log(sameLengthCharGroups(s)+' : '+ s)});

Here's one that runs in linear time:
function test(str) {
if (str.length === 0) return true;
let lastChar = str.charAt(0);
let seqLength = 1;
let lastSeqLength = null;
for (let i = 1; i < str.length; i++) {
if (str.charAt(i) === lastChar) {
seqLength++;
}
else if (lastSeqLength === null || seqLength === lastSeqLength) {
lastSeqLength = seqLength;
seqLength = 1;
lastChar = str.charAt(i);
}
else {
return false;
}
}
return (lastSeqLength === null || lastSeqLength === seqLength);
}

Since requirements changed or weren't clear as now this is the third solution I'm posting. To accept strings that could be divided into smaller groups like aabbbb we could:
Find all lengths of all different characters which are 2 and 4 in this case.
Push them into an array named d.
Find the lowest length in set named m.
Check if all values in d have no remainder when divided by m
Demo
var words = ['aabbbcccdddd', 'abbccaa', 'xxxrrrruuu', 'xxxxxfffff', 'aab', 'aabbbbccc'];
words.forEach(w => {
var d = [], m = Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER;
var s = w.replace(/(.)\1+/gy, x => {
d.push(l = x.length);
if (l < m) m = l;
return '';
});
console.log(w + " => " + (s == '' && !d.some(n => n % m != 0)));
});

Using sticky flag y and replace method you could do this much more faster. This trick replaces occurrences of first one's length with an empty string (and stops as soon as an occurrence with different length happens) then checks if there are some characters left:
var words = ['aabbcc', 'abbccaa', 'xxxrrrruuu', 'xxxxxfffff', 'aa'];
words.forEach(w => {
console.log(w + " => " + (w.replace(/(.)\1+/gy, ($0, $1, o) => {
return $0.length == (o == 0 ? l = $0.length : l) ? '' : $0;
}).length < 1));
});

Another workaround would be using replace() along with test(). First one replaces different characters with their corresponding length and the second looks for same repeated numbers in preceding string:
var str = 'aabbc';
/^(\d+\n)\1*$/.test(str.replace(/(.)\1+/gy, x => x.length + '\n'));
Demo:
var words = ['aabbcc', 'abbccaa', 'xxxrrrruuu', 'xxxxxfffff', 'aa'];
words.forEach(w =>
console.log(/^(\d+\n)\1*$/.test(w.replace(/(.)\1+/gy, x => x.length + '\n')))
);

Since regex has never been my forte here's an approach using String#replace() to add delimiter to string at change of letter and then use that to split into array and check that all elements in array have same length
const values = ['aabbcc', 'abbccaa', 'xxxrrrruuu', 'xxxxxfffff', 'aa'];
const expect = [true, false, false, true, true];
const hasMatchingGroups = (str) => {
if(!str || str.length %2) return false;
const groups = str.replace(/[a-z]/g,(match, offset, string) => {
return string[offset + 1] && match !== string[offset + 1] ? match + '|' : match;
}).split('|');
return groups.every(s => s.length === groups[0].length)
}
values.forEach((s, i) => console.log(JSON.stringify([s,hasMatchingGroups(s), expect[i]])))

The length of the repeated pattern of same charcters needs to be specified within the regular expression. The following snippet creates regular expressions looking for string lengths of 11 down to 2. The for-loop is exited once a match is found and the function returns the length of the pattern found:
function pat1(s){
for (var i=10;i;i--)
if(RegExp('^((.)\\2{'+i+'})+$').exec(s))
return i+1;
return false;}
If nothing is found false is returned.
If the length of the pattern is not required, the regular expression can also be set up in one go (without the need of the for loop around it):
function pat2(s){
var rx=/^((.)\2)+$|^((.)\4{2})+$|^((.)\6{4})+$|^((.)\8{6})+$/;
return !!rx.exec(s);
}
Here are the results from both tests:
console.log(strarr.map(str=>
str+': '+pat1(str)
+' '+pat2(str)).join('\n')+'\n');
aabbcc: 2 true
abbccaa: false false
xxxrrrruuu: false false
xxxxxfffff: 5 true
aa: 2 true
aabbbbcc: 2 true
negative: false false
The regex in pat2 looks for certain repetition-counts only. When 1, 2, 4 or 6 repetitions of a previous character are found then the result is positive. The found patterns have lengths of 2,3,5 or 7 characters (prime numbers!). With these length-checks any pattern-length dividable by one of these numbers will be found as positive (2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,14,15,16,18,20,21,22,24,...).

How to reduce consecutive integers in an array to hyphenated range expressions?

In JavaScript, how can I convert a sequence of numbers in an array to a range of numbers? In other words, I want to express consecutive occurring integers (no gaps) as hyphenated ranges.
[2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20] would become [2-5,10,18-20]
[1,6,7,9,10,12] would become [1,6-7,9-10,12]
[3,5,99] would remain [3,5,99]
[5,6,7,8,9,10,11] would become [5-11]

Here is an algorithm that I made some time ago, originally written for C#, now I ported it to JavaScript:
function getRanges(array) {
var ranges = [], rstart, rend;
for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
rstart = array[i];
rend = rstart;
while (array[i + 1] - array[i] == 1) {
rend = array[i + 1]; // increment the index if the numbers sequential
i++;
}
ranges.push(rstart == rend ? rstart+'' : rstart + '-' + rend);
}
return ranges;
}
getRanges([2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20]);
// returns ["2-5", "10", "18-20"]
getRanges([1,2,3,5,7,9,10,11,12,14 ]);
// returns ["1-3", "5", "7", "9-12", "14"]
getRanges([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10])
// returns ["1-10"]

Just having fun with solution from CMS :
function getRanges (array) {
for (var ranges = [], rend, i = 0; i < array.length;) {
ranges.push ((rend = array[i]) + ((function (rstart) {
while (++rend === array[++i]);
return --rend === rstart;
})(rend) ? '' : '-' + rend));
}
return ranges;
}

Very nice question: here's my attempt:
function ranges(numbers){
var sorted = numbers.sort(function(a,b){return a-b;});
var first = sorted.shift();
return sorted.reduce(function(ranges, num){
if(num - ranges[0][1] <= 1){
ranges[0][1] = num;
} else {
ranges.unshift([num,num]);
}
return ranges;
},[[first,first]]).map(function(ranges){
return ranges[0] === ranges[1] ?
ranges[0].toString() : ranges.join('-');
}).reverse();
}
Demo on JSFiddler

I needed TypeScript code today to solve this very problem -- many years after the OP -- and decided to try a version written in a style more functional than the other answers here. Of course, only the parameter and return type annotations distinguish this code from standard ES6 JavaScript.
function toRanges(values: number[],
separator = '\u2013'): string[] {
return values
.slice()
.sort((p, q) => p - q)
.reduce((acc, cur, idx, src) => {
if ((idx > 0) && ((cur - src[idx - 1]) === 1))
acc[acc.length - 1][1] = cur;
else acc.push([cur]);
return acc;
}, [])
.map(range => range.join(separator));
}
Note that slice is necessary because sort sorts in place and we can't change the original array.

Here's my take on this...
function getRanges(input) {
//setup the return value
var ret = [], ary, first, last;
//copy and sort
var ary = input.concat([]);
ary.sort(function(a,b){
return Number(a) - Number(b);
});
//iterate through the array
for (var i=0; i<ary.length; i++) {
//set the first and last value, to the current iteration
first = last = ary[i];
//while within the range, increment
while (ary[i+1] == last+1) {
last++;
i++;
}
//push the current set into the return value
ret.push(first == last ? first : first + "-" + last);
}
//return the response array.
return ret;
}

Using ES6, a solution is:
function display ( vector ) { // assume vector sorted in increasing order
// display e.g.vector [ 2,4,5,6,9,11,12,13,15 ] as "2;4-6;9;11-13;15"
const l = vector.length - 1; // last valid index of vector array
// map [ 2,4,5,6,9,11,12,13,15 ] into array of strings (quote ommitted)
// --> [ "2;", "4-", "-", "6;", "9;", "11-", "-", "13;", "15;" ]
vector = vector.map ( ( n, i, v ) => // n is current number at index i of vector v
i < l && v [ i + 1 ] - n === 1 ? // next number is adjacent ?
`${ i > 0 && n - v [ i - 1 ] === 1 ? "" : n }-` :
`${ n };`
);
return vector.join ( "" ). // concatenate all strings in vector array
replace ( /-+/g, "-" ). // replace multiple dashes by single dash
slice ( 0, -1 ); // remove trailing ;
}
If you want to add extra spaces for readability, just add extra calls to string.prototype.replace().
If the input vector is not sorted, you can add the following line right after the opening brace of the display() function:
vector.sort ( ( a, b ) => a - b ); // sort vector in place, in increasing order.
Note that this could be improved to avoid testing twice for integer adjacentness (adjacenthood? I'm not a native English speaker;-).
And of course, if you don't want a single string as output, split it with ";".

Rough outline of the process is as follows:
Create an empty array called ranges
For each value in sorted input array
If ranges is empty then insert the item {min: value, max: value}
Else if max of last item in ranges and the current value are consecutive then set max of last item in ranges = value
Else insert the item {min: value, max: value}
Format the ranges array as desired e.g. by combining min and max if same
The following code uses Array.reduce and simplifies the logic by combining step 2.1 and 2.3.
function arrayToRange(array) {
return array
.slice()
.sort(function(a, b) {
return a - b;
})
.reduce(function(ranges, value) {
var lastIndex = ranges.length - 1;
if (lastIndex === -1 || ranges[lastIndex].max !== value - 1) {
ranges.push({ min: value, max: value });
} else {
ranges[lastIndex].max = value;
}
return ranges;
}, [])
.map(function(range) {
return range.min !== range.max ? range.min + "-" + range.max : range.min.toString();
});
}
console.log(arrayToRange([2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 18, 19, 20]));

If you simply want a string that represents a range, then you'd find the mid-point of your sequence, and that becomes your middle value (10 in your example). You'd then grab the first item in the sequence, and the item that immediately preceded your mid-point, and build your first-sequence representation. You'd follow the same procedure to get your last item, and the item that immediately follows your mid-point, and build your last-sequence representation.
// Provide initial sequence
var sequence = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10];
// Find midpoint
var midpoint = Math.ceil(sequence.length/2);
// Build first sequence from midpoint
var firstSequence = sequence[0] + "-" + sequence[midpoint-2];
// Build second sequence from midpoint
var lastSequence = sequence[midpoint] + "-" + sequence[sequence.length-1];
// Place all new in array
var newArray = [firstSequence,midpoint,lastSequence];
alert(newArray.join(",")); // 1-4,5,6-10
Demo Online: http://jsbin.com/uvahi/edit

; For all cells of the array
;if current cell = prev cell + 1 -> range continues
;if current cell != prev cell + 1 -> range ended
int[] x = [2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20]
string output = '['+x[0]
bool range = false; --current range
for (int i = 1; i > x[].length; i++) {
if (x[i+1] = [x]+1) {
range = true;
} else { //not sequential
if range = true
output = output || '-'
else
output = output || ','
output.append(x[i]','||x[i+1])
range = false;
}
}
Something like that.

An adaptation of CMS's javascript solution for Cold Fusion
It does sort the list first so that 1,3,2,4,5,8,9,10 (or similar) properly converts to 1-5,8-10.
<cfscript>
function getRanges(nArr) {
arguments.nArr = listToArray(listSort(arguments.nArr,"numeric"));
var ranges = [];
var rstart = "";
var rend = "";
for (local.i = 1; i <= ArrayLen(arguments.nArr); i++) {
rstart = arguments.nArr[i];
rend = rstart;
while (i < ArrayLen(arguments.nArr) and (val(arguments.nArr[i + 1]) - val(arguments.nArr[i])) == 1) {
rend = val(arguments.nArr[i + 1]); // increment the index if the numbers sequential
i++;
}
ArrayAppend(ranges,rstart == rend ? rstart : rstart & '-' & rend);
}
return arraytolist(ranges);
}
</cfscript>

Tiny ES6 module for you guys. It accepts a function to determine when we must break the sequence (breakDetectorFunc param - default is the simple thing for integer sequence input).
NOTICE: since input is abstract - there's no auto-sorting before processing, so if your sequence isn't sorted - do it prior to calling this module
function defaultIntDetector(a, b){
return Math.abs(b - a) > 1;
}
/**
* #param {Array} valuesArray
* #param {Boolean} [allArraysResult=false] if true - [1,2,3,7] will return [[1,3], [7,7]]. Otherwise [[1.3], 7]
* #param {SequenceToIntervalsBreakDetector} [breakDetectorFunc] must return true if value1 and value2 can't be in one sequence (if we need a gap here)
* #return {Array}
*/
const sequenceToIntervals = function (valuesArray, allArraysResult, breakDetectorFunc) {
if (!breakDetectorFunc){
breakDetectorFunc = defaultIntDetector;
}
if (typeof(allArraysResult) === 'undefined'){
allArraysResult = false;
}
const intervals = [];
let from = 0, to;
if (valuesArray instanceof Array) {
const cnt = valuesArray.length;
for (let i = 0; i < cnt; i++) {
to = i;
if (i < cnt - 1) { // i is not last (to compare to next)
if (breakDetectorFunc(valuesArray[i], valuesArray[i + 1])) {
// break
appendLastResult();
}
}
}
appendLastResult();
} else {
throw new Error("input is not an Array");
}
function appendLastResult(){
if (isFinite(from) && isFinite(to)) {
const vFrom = valuesArray[from];
const vTo = valuesArray[to];
if (from === to) {
intervals.push(
allArraysResult
? [vFrom, vTo] // same values array item
: vFrom // just a value, no array
);
} else if (Math.abs(from - to) === 1) { // sibling items
if (allArraysResult) {
intervals.push([vFrom, vFrom]);
intervals.push([vTo, vTo]);
} else {
intervals.push(vFrom, vTo);
}
} else {
intervals.push([vFrom, vTo]); // true interval
}
from = to + 1;
}
}
return intervals;
};
module.exports = sequenceToIntervals;
/** #callback SequenceToIntervalsBreakDetector
#param value1
#param value2
#return bool
*/
first argument is the input sequence sorted array, second is a boolean flag controlling the output mode: if true - single item (outside the intervals) will be returned as arrays anyway: [1,7],[9,9],[10,10],[12,20], otherwise single items returned as they appear in the input array
for your sample input
[2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20]
it will return:
sequenceToIntervals([2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20], true) // [[2,5], [10,10], [18,20]]
sequenceToIntervals([2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20], false) // [[2,5], 10, [18,20]]
sequenceToIntervals([2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20]) // [[2,5], 10, [18,20]]

Here's a version in Coffeescript
getRanges = (array) ->
ranges = []
rstart
rend
i = 0
while i < array.length
rstart = array[i]
rend = rstart
while array[i + 1] - array[i] is 1
rend = array[i + 1] # increment the index if the numbers sequential
i = i + 1
if rstart == rend
ranges.push rstart + ''
else
ranges.push rstart + '-' + rend
i = i + 1
return ranges

I've written my own method that's dependent on Lo-Dash, but doesn't just give you back an array of ranges, rather, it just returns an array of range groups.
[1,2,3,4,6,8,10] becomes:
[[1,2,3,4],[6,8,10]]
http://jsfiddle.net/mberkom/ufVey/