Related
Thanks to Nina I have a code to compare two sentences word by word and return the number of word matches like this:
function includeWords(wanted, seen) {
var wantedMap = wanted.split(/\s+/).reduce((m, s) => m.set(s, (m.get(s) || 0) + 1), new Map),
wantedArray = Array.from(wantedMap.keys()),
count = 0;
seen.split(/\s+/)
.forEach(s => {
var key = wantedArray.find(t => s === t || s.length > 3 && t.length > 3 && (s.startsWith(t) || t.startsWith(s)));
if (!wantedMap.get(key)) return;
console.log(s, key)
++count;
wantedMap.set(key, wantedMap.get(key) - 1);
});
return count;
}
let matches = includeWords('i was sent to earth to protect you introduced', 'they\'re were protecting him i knew that i was aware introducing');
console.log('Matched words: ' + matches);
The code works fine, but there is still one issue:
What if we want to return a match for introduced and introducing too?
If you want the program to consider the words 'introduce' and 'introducing' as a match, it would amount to a "fuzzy" match (non binary logic). One simple way of doing this would require more code, the algorithm of which would possibly resemble
Take 2 words that you wish to match, tokenize into ordered list
of letters
Compare positionally the respective letters, i.e
match a[0]==b[0]? a[1]==b[1] where a[0] represents the first letter
of the first word and b[0] represents the first tokenized
letter/character potential match candidate
KEep a rolling numeric count of such positional matches. In this case it is 8 (introduc).
divide by word length of a = 8/9 call this f
divide by word length of b = 8/11 call this g
Provide a threshold value beyond which the program will consider it a match. eg. if you say anything above 70% in BOTH f and g can be
considered a match - viola, you have your answer!
Please note that there is some normalization also needed to prevent low length words from becoming false positives. you can add a constraint that the aforementioned calculation applies to words with at least 5 letters(or something to that effect!
Hope this helps!!
Regards,
SR
You could calculate similarites for a word pair and get a relation how many characters are similar bei respecting the length of the given word and the wanted pattern.
function getSimilarity(a, b) {
var i = 0;
while (i < a.length) {
if (a[i] !== b[i]) break;
i++;
}
return i / Math.max(a.length, b.length);
}
console.log(getSimilarity('abcdefghij', 'abc')); // 0.3
console.log(getSimilarity('abcdefghij', 'abcdef')); // 0.6
console.log(getSimilarity('abcdefghij', 'abcdefghij')); // 1
console.log(getSimilarity('abcdef', 'abcdefghij')); // 0.6
console.log(getSimilarity('abcdefghij', 'abcdef')); // 0.6
console.log(getSimilarity('abcdefghij', 'xyz')); // 0
console.log(getSimilarity('introduced', 'introducing')); // 0.7272727272727273
Here's a quick fix solution.
It's not intended as a complete solution.
Since the English language has more than a few quirks that would almost require an AI to understand the language.
First add a function that can compare 2 words and returns a boolean.
It'll also make it easier to test for specific words, and adapt to what's really needed.
For example, here's a function that does the simple checks that were already used.
Plus an '...ed' versus '...ing' check.
function compareWords (word1, word2) {
if (word1 === word2)
return true;
if (word1.length > 3 && word2.length > 3) {
if (word1.startsWith(word2) || word2.startsWith(word1))
return true;
if (word1.length > 4 && word2.length > 4) {
if (/(ing|ed)$/.test(word1) && word1.replace(/(ing|ed)$/, 'inged') === word2.replace(/(ing|ed)$/, 'inged'))
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
//
// tests
//
let words = [
["same", "same"],
["different", "unsame"],
["priced", "pricing"],
["price", "priced"],
["producing", "produced"],
["produced", "producing"]
];
words.forEach( (arr, idx) => {
let word1= arr[0];
let word2= arr[1];
let isSame = compareWords(word1, word2);
console.log(`[${word1}] ≈ [${word2}] : ${isSame}`);
});
Then use it in the code you already have.
...
seen.split(/\s+/)
.forEach(s => {
var key = wantedArray.find(t => compareWords(t, s));
...
Regarding string similarity, here's f.e. an older SO post that has some methods to compare strings : Compare Strings Javascript Return %of Likely
I have implemented this, it seems to work fine. any suggestions would be appreciated..
let speechResult = "i was sent to earth to introducing protect yourself introduced seen";
let expectSt = ['they were protecting him knew introducing that you i seen was aware seen introducing'];
// Create arrays of words from above sentences
let speechResultWords = speechResult.split(/\s+/);
let expectStWords = expectSt[0].split(/\s+/);
function includeWords(){
// Declare a variable to hold the count number of matches
let arr = [];
for(let a = 0; a < speechResultWords.length; a++){
for(let b = 0; b < expectStWords.length; b++){
if(similarity(speechResultWords[a], expectStWords[b]) > 69){
arr.push(speechResultWords[a]);
console.log(speechResultWords[a] + ' includes in ' + expectStWords[b]);
}
} // End of first for loop
} // End of second for loop
let uniq = [...new Set(arr)];
return uniq.length;
};
let result = includeWords();
console.log(result)
// The algorithmn
function similarity(s1, s2) {
var longer = s1;
var shorter = s2;
if (s1.length < s2.length) {
longer = s2;
shorter = s1;
}
var longerLength = longer.length;
if (longerLength == 0) {
return 1.0;
}
return (longerLength - editDistance(longer, shorter)) / parseFloat(longerLength)*100;
}
function editDistance(s1, s2) {
s1 = s1.toLowerCase();
s2 = s2.toLowerCase();
var costs = new Array();
for (var i = 0; i <= s1.length; i++) {
var lastValue = i;
for (var j = 0; j <= s2.length; j++) {
if (i == 0)
costs[j] = j;
else {
if (j > 0) {
var newValue = costs[j - 1];
if (s1.charAt(i - 1) != s2.charAt(j - 1))
newValue = Math.min(Math.min(newValue, lastValue),
costs[j]) + 1;
costs[j - 1] = lastValue;
lastValue = newValue;
}
}
}
if (i > 0)
costs[s2.length] = lastValue;
}
return costs[s2.length];
}
I have a string akstr = My name is khan and I want to know that does akstr contains My name which I can do easily but if I want to check does akstr contains My nama with little mistake in spelling and I want True as output. Could it be done using javascript?
Provided you use node.js, you can use the npm package natural.
It is used for natural language processing applications.
It has a set of methods for calculating String Distances. Meaning that My name is 94% equal to My nama. You can create your fuzzy algorithm based on that. An example:
const natural = require('natural');
let distance = natural.JaroWinklerDistance("My name", "My nama");
console.log(distance);
prints 0.9428571428571428
You may find other intersting stuff in it too, like spell checking and Approximate String Matching.
With just javascript I wrote a simple fuzzy contains method with three inputs. The first is the full string, the second, the substring and the third the allowed error. In this case with an error 2, you allow 2 characters to be different for the substring. With 0 you get the normal contains method. You can also change the way the error is calculated (maybe a percentage based on the substring length). I used the code for the levenstein method from here: https://gist.github.com/andrei-m/982927
function levenstein(a, b) {
var m = [], i, j, min = Math.min;
if (!(a && b)) return (b || a).length;
for (i = 0; i <= b.length; m[i] = [i++]);
for (j = 0; j <= a.length; m[0][j] = j++);
for (i = 1; i <= b.length; i++) {
for (j = 1; j <= a.length; j++) {
m[i][j] = b.charAt(i - 1) == a.charAt(j - 1)
? m[i - 1][j - 1]
: m[i][j] = min(
m[i - 1][j - 1] + 1,
min(m[i][j - 1] + 1, m[i - 1 ][j] + 1))
}
}
return m[b.length][a.length];
}
function fuzzyContains(a, b, error) {
var matchLength = a.length - b.length;
var distanceToMatch = levenstein(a, b) - matchLength;
if(distanceToMatch - error > 0) {
return false;
} else {
return true;
}
}
console.log(fuzzyContains("hello world entire", "worlf", 1))
You can compare the String, like
My Name
My Nama
is 90% matches so you can return true.
You will get more idea from the following link
Compare Strings Javascript Return %of Likely
This question already has answers here:
How to format a number with commas as thousands separators?
(50 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I have created a function that takes a number in Imperial units entered into a div and converts that value to metric units in another div. Being relatively new to js, I am now realizing that a thousandths place comma separator does not come standard. I've tried to apply many of the solutions (many of them reg ex's) that I've found but none suit my needs or have worked. Simply put, I am just looking to have both divs outputted numbers have commas separating the thousandths place. Ultimately, these numbers are elevation values expressed in Feet and Meters. Any insight would be greatly appreciated... thanks!
Here is my code:
<body>
<div id="feet" onload="calculateMeter()">2120</div>
<div id="meter"></div>
<script>
var feet = document.getElementById('feet');
var meter = document.getElementById('meter');
function calculateMeter() {
if (feet.innerHTML > 0) {
meter.innerHTML = (feet.innerHTML * 0.3048).toFixed(1);
feet.toString();
feet = feet.innerHTML.replace(/(\d)(\d{3})\,/, "$1,$2.");
}
}
calculateMeter();
</script>
</body>
Here is a simple RegEx solution
function calculateMeter() {
if (feet.innerHTML > 0) {
var m = (feet.innerHTML * 0.3048).toFixed(2);
meter.innerHTML = m.replace(/\B(?=(\d\d\d)+\b)/g, ",");
}
}
It seems your problem is actually just setting the content the DOM element. Using the solution in How to print a number with commas as thousands separators in JavaScript for formatting numbers, all you need is:
function calculateMeter() {
if (feet.innerHTML > 0) {
meter.innerHTML = numberWithCommas*(feet.innerHTML * 0.3048).toFixed(1));
feet.innerHTML = numberWithCommas(feet.innerHTML);
}
}
My function:
function formatNumberWithCommasDec(d) {
d += "";
var c = d.split(".");
var f = c[1];
var a = c.length > 1 ? c[0] + '.' : '.', flag = false;
var g = f.split('').reverse(), y = 1, s = '';
for (var i = g.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
flag = false;
var e = g[i];
var h = (y === 3) ? s = s + e + ',' : s = s + e;
console.log(e);
if(y === 3){
y = 1;
flag = true;
} else {
y = y + 1;
}
}
if(flag){
s = s.substring(0, s.length - 1);
} else {
s = s;
}
return a + s;
}
Fiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/6f0tL0ec/1/
Update: found some problems, but everythings good now
How can I count the number of times a particular string occurs in another string. For example, this is what I am trying to do in Javascript:
var temp = "This is a string.";
alert(temp.count("is")); //should output '2'
The g in the regular expression (short for global) says to search the whole string rather than just find the first occurrence. This matches is twice:
var temp = "This is a string.";
var count = (temp.match(/is/g) || []).length;
console.log(count);
And, if there are no matches, it returns 0:
var temp = "Hello World!";
var count = (temp.match(/is/g) || []).length;
console.log(count);
/** Function that count occurrences of a substring in a string;
* #param {String} string The string
* #param {String} subString The sub string to search for
* #param {Boolean} [allowOverlapping] Optional. (Default:false)
*
* #author Vitim.us https://gist.github.com/victornpb/7736865
* #see Unit Test https://jsfiddle.net/Victornpb/5axuh96u/
* #see https://stackoverflow.com/a/7924240/938822
*/
function occurrences(string, subString, allowOverlapping) {
string += "";
subString += "";
if (subString.length <= 0) return (string.length + 1);
var n = 0,
pos = 0,
step = allowOverlapping ? 1 : subString.length;
while (true) {
pos = string.indexOf(subString, pos);
if (pos >= 0) {
++n;
pos += step;
} else break;
}
return n;
}
Usage
occurrences("foofoofoo", "bar"); //0
occurrences("foofoofoo", "foo"); //3
occurrences("foofoofoo", "foofoo"); //1
allowOverlapping
occurrences("foofoofoo", "foofoo", true); //2
Matches:
foofoofoo
1 `----´
2 `----´
Unit Test
https://jsfiddle.net/Victornpb/5axuh96u/
Benchmark
I've made a benchmark test and my function is more then 10 times
faster then the regexp match function posted by gumbo. In my test
string is 25 chars length. with 2 occurences of the character 'o'. I
executed 1 000 000 times in Safari.
Safari 5.1
Benchmark> Total time execution: 5617 ms (regexp)
Benchmark> Total time execution: 881 ms (my function 6.4x faster)
Firefox 4
Benchmark> Total time execution: 8547 ms (Rexexp)
Benchmark> Total time execution: 634 ms (my function 13.5x faster)
Edit: changes I've made
cached substring length
added type-casting to string.
added optional 'allowOverlapping' parameter
fixed correct output for "" empty substring case.
Gist
https://gist.github.com/victornpb/7736865
function countInstances(string, word) {
return string.split(word).length - 1;
}
console.log(countInstances("This is a string", "is"))
You can try this:
var theString = "This is a string.";
console.log(theString.split("is").length - 1);
My solution:
var temp = "This is a string.";
function countOccurrences(str, value) {
var regExp = new RegExp(value, "gi");
return (str.match(regExp) || []).length;
}
console.log(countOccurrences(temp, 'is'));
You can use match to define such function:
String.prototype.count = function(search) {
var m = this.match(new RegExp(search.toString().replace(/(?=[.\\+*?[^\]$(){}\|])/g, "\\"), "g"));
return m ? m.length:0;
}
Just code-golfing Rebecca Chernoff's solution :-)
alert(("This is a string.".match(/is/g) || []).length);
The non-regex version:
var string = 'This is a string',
searchFor = 'is',
count = 0,
pos = string.indexOf(searchFor);
while (pos > -1) {
++count;
pos = string.indexOf(searchFor, ++pos);
}
console.log(count); // 2
String.prototype.Count = function (find) {
return this.split(find).length - 1;
}
console.log("This is a string.".Count("is"));
This will return 2.
Here is the fastest function!
Why is it faster?
Doesn't check char by char (with 1 exception)
Uses a while and increments 1 var (the char count var) vs. a for loop checking the length and incrementing 2 vars (usually var i and a var with the char count)
Uses WAY less vars
Doesn't use regex!
Uses an (hopefully) highly optimized function
All operations are as combined as they can be, avoiding slowdowns due to multiple operations
String.prototype.timesCharExist=function(c){var t=0,l=0,c=(c+'')[0];while(l=this.indexOf(c,l)+1)++t;return t};
Here is a slower and more readable version:
String.prototype.timesCharExist = function ( chr ) {
var total = 0, last_location = 0, single_char = ( chr + '' )[0];
while( last_location = this.indexOf( single_char, last_location ) + 1 )
{
total = total + 1;
}
return total;
};
This one is slower because of the counter, long var names and misuse of 1 var.
To use it, you simply do this:
'The char "a" only shows up twice'.timesCharExist('a');
Edit: (2013/12/16)
DON'T use with Opera 12.16 or older! it will take almost 2.5x more than the regex solution!
On chrome, this solution will take between 14ms and 20ms for 1,000,000 characters.
The regex solution takes 11-14ms for the same amount.
Using a function (outside String.prototype) will take about 10-13ms.
Here is the code used:
String.prototype.timesCharExist=function(c){var t=0,l=0,c=(c+'')[0];while(l=this.indexOf(c,l)+1)++t;return t};
var x=Array(100001).join('1234567890');
console.time('proto');x.timesCharExist('1');console.timeEnd('proto');
console.time('regex');x.match(/1/g).length;console.timeEnd('regex');
var timesCharExist=function(x,c){var t=0,l=0,c=(c+'')[0];while(l=x.indexOf(c,l)+1)++t;return t;};
console.time('func');timesCharExist(x,'1');console.timeEnd('func');
The result of all the solutions should be 100,000!
Note: if you want this function to count more than 1 char, change where is c=(c+'')[0] into c=c+''
var temp = "This is a string.";
console.log((temp.match(new RegExp("is", "g")) || []).length);
A simple way would be to split the string on the required word, the word for which we want to calculate the number of occurences, and subtract 1 from the number of parts:
function checkOccurences(string, word) {
return string.split(word).length - 1;
}
const text="Let us see. see above, see below, see forward, see backward, see left, see right until we will be right";
const count=countOccurences(text,"see "); // 2
I think the purpose for regex is much different from indexOf.
indexOf simply find the occurance of a certain string while in regex you can use wildcards like [A-Z] which means it will find any capital character in the word without stating the actual character.
Example:
var index = "This is a string".indexOf("is");
console.log(index);
var length = "This is a string".match(/[a-z]/g).length;
// where [a-z] is a regex wildcard expression thats why its slower
console.log(length);
Super duper old, but I needed to do something like this today and only thought to check SO afterwards. Works pretty fast for me.
String.prototype.count = function(substr,start,overlap) {
overlap = overlap || false;
start = start || 0;
var count = 0,
offset = overlap ? 1 : substr.length;
while((start = this.indexOf(substr, start) + offset) !== (offset - 1))
++count;
return count;
};
var myString = "This is a string.";
var foundAtPosition = 0;
var Count = 0;
while (foundAtPosition != -1)
{
foundAtPosition = myString.indexOf("is",foundAtPosition);
if (foundAtPosition != -1)
{
Count++;
foundAtPosition++;
}
}
document.write("There are " + Count + " occurrences of the word IS");
Refer :- count a substring appears in the string for step by step explanation.
Building upon #Vittim.us answer above. I like the control his method gives me, making it easy to extend, but I needed to add case insensitivity and limit matches to whole words with support for punctuation. (e.g. "bath" is in "take a bath." but not "bathing")
The punctuation regex came from: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25575009/497745 (How can I strip all punctuation from a string in JavaScript using regex?)
function keywordOccurrences(string, subString, allowOverlapping, caseInsensitive, wholeWord)
{
string += "";
subString += "";
if (subString.length <= 0) return (string.length + 1); //deal with empty strings
if(caseInsensitive)
{
string = string.toLowerCase();
subString = subString.toLowerCase();
}
var n = 0,
pos = 0,
step = allowOverlapping ? 1 : subString.length,
stringLength = string.length,
subStringLength = subString.length;
while (true)
{
pos = string.indexOf(subString, pos);
if (pos >= 0)
{
var matchPos = pos;
pos += step; //slide forward the position pointer no matter what
if(wholeWord) //only whole word matches are desired
{
if(matchPos > 0) //if the string is not at the very beginning we need to check if the previous character is whitespace
{
if(!/[\s\u2000-\u206F\u2E00-\u2E7F\\'!"#$%&\(\)*+,\-.\/:;<=>?#\[\]^_`{|}~]/.test(string[matchPos - 1])) //ignore punctuation
{
continue; //then this is not a match
}
}
var matchEnd = matchPos + subStringLength;
if(matchEnd < stringLength - 1)
{
if (!/[\s\u2000-\u206F\u2E00-\u2E7F\\'!"#$%&\(\)*+,\-.\/:;<=>?#\[\]^_`{|}~]/.test(string[matchEnd])) //ignore punctuation
{
continue; //then this is not a match
}
}
}
++n;
} else break;
}
return n;
}
Please feel free to modify and refactor this answer if you spot bugs or improvements.
For anyone that finds this thread in the future, note that the accepted answer will not always return the correct value if you generalize it, since it will choke on regex operators like $ and .. Here's a better version, that can handle any needle:
function occurrences (haystack, needle) {
var _needle = needle
.replace(/\[/g, '\\[')
.replace(/\]/g, '\\]')
return (
haystack.match(new RegExp('[' + _needle + ']', 'g')) || []
).length
}
Try it
<?php
$str = "33,33,56,89,56,56";
echo substr_count($str, '56');
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
var temp = "33,33,56,89,56,56";
var count = temp.match(/56/g);
alert(count.length);
</script>
Simple version without regex:
var temp = "This is a string.";
var count = (temp.split('is').length - 1);
alert(count);
No one will ever see this, but it's good to bring back recursion and arrow functions once in a while (pun gloriously intended)
String.prototype.occurrencesOf = function(s, i) {
return (n => (n === -1) ? 0 : 1 + this.occurrencesOf(s, n + 1))(this.indexOf(s, (i || 0)));
};
function substrCount( str, x ) {
let count = -1, pos = 0;
do {
pos = str.indexOf( x, pos ) + 1;
count++;
} while( pos > 0 );
return count;
}
ES2020 offers a new MatchAll which might be of use in this particular context.
Here we create a new RegExp, please ensure you pass 'g' into the function.
Convert the result using Array.from and count the length, which returns 2 as per the original requestor's desired output.
let strToCheck = RegExp('is', 'g')
let matchesReg = "This is a string.".matchAll(strToCheck)
console.log(Array.from(matchesReg).length) // 2
Now this is a very old thread i've come across but as many have pushed their answer's, here is mine in a hope to help someone with this simple code.
var search_value = "This is a dummy sentence!";
var letter = 'a'; /*Can take any letter, have put in a var if anyone wants to use this variable dynamically*/
letter = letter && "string" === typeof letter ? letter : "";
var count;
for (var i = count = 0; i < search_value.length; count += (search_value[i++] == letter));
console.log(count);
I'm not sure if it is the fastest solution but i preferred it for simplicity and for not using regex (i just don't like using them!)
You could try this
let count = s.length - s.replace(/is/g, "").length;
We can use the js split function, and it's length minus 1 will be the number of occurrences.
var temp = "This is a string.";
alert(temp.split('is').length-1);
Here is my solution. I hope it would help someone
const countOccurence = (string, char) => {
const chars = string.match(new RegExp(char, 'g')).length
return chars;
}
var countInstances = function(body, target) {
var globalcounter = 0;
var concatstring = '';
for(var i=0,j=target.length;i<body.length;i++){
concatstring = body.substring(i-1,j);
if(concatstring === target){
globalcounter += 1;
concatstring = '';
}
}
return globalcounter;
};
console.log( countInstances('abcabc', 'abc') ); // ==> 2
console.log( countInstances('ababa', 'aba') ); // ==> 2
console.log( countInstances('aaabbb', 'ab') ); // ==> 1
substr_count translated to Javascript from php
Locutus (Package that translates Php to JS)
substr_count (official page, code copied below)
function substr_count (haystack, needle, offset, length) {
// eslint-disable-line camelcase
// discuss at: https://locutus.io/php/substr_count/
// original by: Kevin van Zonneveld (https://kvz.io)
// bugfixed by: Onno Marsman (https://twitter.com/onnomarsman)
// improved by: Brett Zamir (https://brett-zamir.me)
// improved by: Thomas
// example 1: substr_count('Kevin van Zonneveld', 'e')
// returns 1: 3
// example 2: substr_count('Kevin van Zonneveld', 'K', 1)
// returns 2: 0
// example 3: substr_count('Kevin van Zonneveld', 'Z', 0, 10)
// returns 3: false
var cnt = 0
haystack += ''
needle += ''
if (isNaN(offset)) {
offset = 0
}
if (isNaN(length)) {
length = 0
}
if (needle.length === 0) {
return false
}
offset--
while ((offset = haystack.indexOf(needle, offset + 1)) !== -1) {
if (length > 0 && (offset + needle.length) > length) {
return false
}
cnt++
}
return cnt
}
Check out Locutus's Translation Of Php's substr_count function
The parameters:
ustring: the superset string
countChar: the substring
A function to count substring occurrence in JavaScript:
function subStringCount(ustring, countChar){
var correspCount = 0;
var corresp = false;
var amount = 0;
var prevChar = null;
for(var i=0; i!=ustring.length; i++){
if(ustring.charAt(i) == countChar.charAt(0) && corresp == false){
corresp = true;
correspCount += 1;
if(correspCount == countChar.length){
amount+=1;
corresp = false;
correspCount = 0;
}
prevChar = 1;
}
else if(ustring.charAt(i) == countChar.charAt(prevChar) && corresp == true){
correspCount += 1;
if(correspCount == countChar.length){
amount+=1;
corresp = false;
correspCount = 0;
prevChar = null;
}else{
prevChar += 1 ;
}
}else{
corresp = false;
correspCount = 0;
}
}
return amount;
}
console.log(subStringCount('Hello World, Hello World', 'll'));
var str = 'stackoverflow';
var arr = Array.from(str);
console.log(arr);
for (let a = 0; a <= arr.length; a++) {
var temp = arr[a];
var c = 0;
for (let b = 0; b <= arr.length; b++) {
if (temp === arr[b]) {
c++;
}
}
console.log(`the ${arr[a]} is counted for ${c}`)
}
In Perl I can repeat a character multiple times using the syntax:
$a = "a" x 10; // results in "aaaaaaaaaa"
Is there a simple way to accomplish this in Javascript? I can obviously use a function, but I was wondering if there was any built in approach, or some other clever technique.
These days, the repeat string method is implemented almost everywhere. (It is not in Internet Explorer.) So unless you need to support older browsers, you can simply write:
"a".repeat(10)
Before repeat, we used this hack:
Array(11).join("a") // create string with 10 a's: "aaaaaaaaaa"
(Note that an array of length 11 gets you only 10 "a"s, since Array.join puts the argument between the array elements.)
Simon also points out that according to this benchmark, it appears that it's faster in Safari and Chrome (but not Firefox) to repeat a character multiple times by simply appending using a for loop (although a bit less concise).
In a new ES6 harmony, you will have native way for doing this with repeat. Also ES6 right now only experimental, this feature is already available in Edge, FF, Chrome and Safari
"abc".repeat(3) // "abcabcabc"
And surely if repeat function is not available you can use old-good Array(n + 1).join("abc")
Convenient if you repeat yourself a lot:
String.prototype.repeat = String.prototype.repeat || function(n){
n= n || 1;
return Array(n+1).join(this);
}
alert( 'Are we there yet?\nNo.\n'.repeat(10) )
Array(10).fill('a').join('')
Although the most voted answer is a bit more compact, with this approach you don't have to add an extra array item.
An alternative is:
for(var word = ''; word.length < 10; word += 'a'){}
If you need to repeat multiple chars, multiply your conditional:
for(var word = ''; word.length < 10 * 3; word += 'foo'){}
NOTE: You do not have to overshoot by 1 as with word = Array(11).join('a')
The most performance-wice way is https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/repeat
Short version is below.
String.prototype.repeat = function(count) {
if (count < 1) return '';
var result = '', pattern = this.valueOf();
while (count > 1) {
if (count & 1) result += pattern;
count >>>= 1, pattern += pattern;
}
return result + pattern;
};
var a = "a";
console.debug(a.repeat(10));
Polyfill from Mozilla:
if (!String.prototype.repeat) {
String.prototype.repeat = function(count) {
'use strict';
if (this == null) {
throw new TypeError('can\'t convert ' + this + ' to object');
}
var str = '' + this;
count = +count;
if (count != count) {
count = 0;
}
if (count < 0) {
throw new RangeError('repeat count must be non-negative');
}
if (count == Infinity) {
throw new RangeError('repeat count must be less than infinity');
}
count = Math.floor(count);
if (str.length == 0 || count == 0) {
return '';
}
// Ensuring count is a 31-bit integer allows us to heavily optimize the
// main part. But anyway, most current (August 2014) browsers can't handle
// strings 1 << 28 chars or longer, so:
if (str.length * count >= 1 << 28) {
throw new RangeError('repeat count must not overflow maximum string size');
}
var rpt = '';
for (;;) {
if ((count & 1) == 1) {
rpt += str;
}
count >>>= 1;
if (count == 0) {
break;
}
str += str;
}
// Could we try:
// return Array(count + 1).join(this);
return rpt;
}
}
If you're not opposed to including a library in your project, lodash has a repeat function.
_.repeat('*', 3);
// → '***
https://lodash.com/docs#repeat
For all browsers
The following function will perform a lot faster than the option suggested in the accepted answer:
var repeat = function(str, count) {
var array = [];
for(var i = 0; i < count;)
array[i++] = str;
return array.join('');
}
You'd use it like this :
var repeatedString = repeat("a", 10);
To compare the performance of this function with that of the option proposed in the accepted answer, see this Fiddle and this Fiddle for benchmarks.
For moderns browsers only
In modern browsers, you can now do this using String.prototype.repeat method:
var repeatedString = "a".repeat(10);
Read more about this method on MDN.
This option is even faster. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in any version of Internet explorer. The numbers in the table specify the first browser version that fully supports the method:
In ES2015/ES6 you can use "*".repeat(n)
So just add this to your projects, and your are good to go.
String.prototype.repeat = String.prototype.repeat ||
function(n) {
if (n < 0) throw new RangeError("invalid count value");
if (n == 0) return "";
return new Array(n + 1).join(this.toString())
};
String.repeat() is supported by 96.39% of browsers as of now.
function pad(text, maxLength){
return text + "0".repeat(maxLength - text.length);
}
console.log(pad('text', 7)); //text000
/**
* Repeat a string `n`-times (recursive)
* #param {String} s - The string you want to repeat.
* #param {Number} n - The times to repeat the string.
* #param {String} d - A delimiter between each string.
*/
var repeat = function (s, n, d) {
return --n ? s + (d || "") + repeat(s, n, d) : "" + s;
};
var foo = "foo";
console.log(
"%s\n%s\n%s\n%s",
repeat(foo), // "foo"
repeat(foo, 2), // "foofoo"
repeat(foo, "2"), // "foofoo"
repeat(foo, 2, "-") // "foo-foo"
);
Just for the fun of it, here is another way by using the toFixed(), used to format floating point numbers.
By doing
(0).toFixed(2)
(0).toFixed(3)
(0).toFixed(4)
we get
0.00
0.000
0.0000
If the first two characters 0. are deleted, we can use this repeating pattern to generate any repetition.
function repeat(str, nTimes) {
return (0).toFixed(nTimes).substr(2).replaceAll('0', str);
}
console.info(repeat('3', 5));
console.info(repeat('hello ', 4));
Another interesting way to quickly repeat n character is to use idea from quick exponentiation algorithm:
var repeatString = function(string, n) {
var result = '', i;
for (i = 1; i <= n; i *= 2) {
if ((n & i) === i) {
result += string;
}
string = string + string;
}
return result;
};
For repeat a value in my projects i use repeat
For example:
var n = 6;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
console.log("#".repeat(i+1))
}
but be careful because this method has been added to the ECMAScript 6 specification.
function repeatString(n, string) {
var repeat = [];
repeat.length = n + 1;
return repeat.join(string);
}
repeatString(3,'x'); // => xxx
repeatString(10,'🌹'); // => "🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹"
This is how you can call a function and get the result by the helps of Array() and join()
using Typescript and arrow fun
const repeatString = (str: string, num: number) => num > 0 ?
Array(num+1).join(str) : "";
console.log(repeatString("🌷",10))
//outputs: 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
function repeatString(str, num) {
// Array(num+1) is the string you want to repeat and the times to repeat the string
return num > 0 ? Array(num+1).join(str) : "";
}
console.log(repeatString("a",10))
// outputs: aaaaaaaaaa
console.log(repeatString("🌷",10))
//outputs: 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
Here is what I use:
function repeat(str, num) {
var holder = [];
for(var i=0; i<num; i++) {
holder.push(str);
}
return holder.join('');
}
I realize that it's not a popular task, what if you need to repeat your string not an integer number of times?
It's possible with repeat() and slice(), here's how:
String.prototype.fracRepeat = function(n){
if(n < 0) n = 0;
var n_int = ~~n; // amount of whole times to repeat
var n_frac = n - n_int; // amount of fraction times (e.g., 0.5)
var frac_length = ~~(n_frac * this.length); // length in characters of fraction part, floored
return this.repeat(n) + this.slice(0, frac_length);
}
And below a shortened version:
String.prototype.fracRepeat = function(n){
if(n < 0) n = 0;
return this.repeat(n) + this.slice(0, ~~((n - ~~n) * this.length));
}
var s = "abcd";
console.log(s.fracRepeat(2.5))
I'm going to expand on #bonbon's answer. His method is an easy way to "append N chars to an existing string", just in case anyone needs to do that. For example since "a google" is a 1 followed by 100 zeros.
for(var google = '1'; google.length < 1 + 100; google += '0'){}
document.getElementById('el').innerText = google;
<div>This is "a google":</div>
<div id="el"></div>
NOTE: You do have to add the length of the original string to the conditional.
Lodash offers a similar functionality as the Javascript repeat() function which is not available in all browers. It is called _.repeat and available since version 3.0.0:
_.repeat('a', 10);
var stringRepeat = function(string, val) {
var newString = [];
for(var i = 0; i < val; i++) {
newString.push(string);
}
return newString.join('');
}
var repeatedString = stringRepeat("a", 1);
Can be used as a one-liner too:
function repeat(str, len) {
while (str.length < len) str += str.substr(0, len-str.length);
return str;
}
In CoffeeScript:
( 'a' for dot in [0..10]).join('')
String.prototype.repeat = function (n) { n = Math.abs(n) || 1; return Array(n + 1).join(this || ''); };
// console.log("0".repeat(3) , "0".repeat(-3))
// return: "000" "000"