Split method

[ericflash]

I have a string value that looks like this.

/about/company-names/

I want to try and separate the names from the slashes into an array so I have

var arr : Array = [about, company-names]

I tried the split function but it gives me added spaces with nothing in the array index.

example:

var str = '/about/company-names/';
var spl = str.split('/');
trace("spl = "+spl);

output : ,about,company-names,

How can I split it so I end up with this.

var arr : Array = [about, company-names]

[neznein9]

Here's a hacky fix - throw this in before you split.

while(str.substr(0,1) == '/'){ str = str.slice(1) };
while(str.substr(-1) == '/'){ str = str.slice(0, str.length - 1) }; 

[ericflash]

Thanks neznein9 here is another hack fix I came up with.
Thanks again for the help

		private function splitElements(str : String) : Array
		{
			var arr : Array = [];
			var split = str.split('/');
			for(var i:int = 0; i < split.length; i++){
				if(split[i]){
				arr.push(split[i]);
			}
		}
			return arr;
		}

I thought there might be a simpler way of doing this but I guess not.

[senocular]

str.match(/[^\/]+/g)

[ericflash]

Wow this works great and its only one line. I'm impressed. Can you explain what it does and how it works, loving it thanks

[senocular]

str.match(/[^\/]+/g)

Broken down:

str
The String you're performing the operation on (str being the name of the variable)

match
A method of the String class, match is kind of like a regular expression-enabled version of String.split(). It takes a regular expression and returns an array of strings represented the sub-strings in your original that matches the supplied expression

/[...]/g
This is shorthand for the regular expression being used. The contents within the "/" characters represent the pattern and trailing characters are flags. This regular expression uses the g flag which stands for "global" meaning it won't stop after the first match is found; it will keep searching until the end of the string is reached. Regular expressions can also be created with the RegExp class which accepts these parts separately within the constructor.

[^\/]+
This is the meat of the regular expression. It is pretty much one rule: Find everything that is at least one character that is not the "/" character. The brackets [] represent a group. Usually they mean "has everything in this", but they mean "has nothing in this" when the first character is a "^". You can see that almost as being the equivalent to ! for Boolean variables, but here, for [] groups. Next is \/, which represents the "/" character. The "\" is included to escape the "/". Otherwise it would indicate the end of the regular expression. Following the group is a + which means one or more of what preceeded it. Here, it means one or more non-/ characters.

The Flex/AS docs have more info on regular expressions and their syntax in AS
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/htm...ssions_03.html

and you can find even more docs online about reg exp in general