Could anyone clarify the concept of how a function is able to be equivalent to zero?

Question

Could anyone clarify the concept of how a function is able to be equivalent to zero?

function checkForSpecialCharacters(text)  
{
    var specialChars = [";", "!", ".", "?", ",", "-"];

    for(var i = 0; i < specialChars.length; i++)
    {
        if(text.indexOf(specialChars[i]) !== -1)
        {
          return true;
        }
    }

    return false;
}


function isCommonWord(word, commonWords) 
{
    for (var i = 0; i < commonWords.length; i += 1) 
    {
        var commonWord = commonWords[i];

        if ((checkForSpecialCharacters(word)) && (word.indexOf(commonWord) === 0) && (word.length === commonWord.length + 1)) 
        {
            return true;
        } 
        else if (word === commonWord) 
        {
            return true;
        }
    }

    return false;
}

In the snippet above, why does

checkForSpecialCharacters(text) && (word.indexOf(commonWord) === 0

both evaluate to zero? Can someone clarify this?

I'm also uncertain about the rationale behind using

(word.length === commonWord.length + 1)

. Why is this comparison made?

javascript

Answer 1

Answer №1

It appears there may be a misunderstanding in how the if statement is being interpreted, especially without clarity on the purpose of the isStopWord function. The

(word.length === stopWord.length + 1)

section seems to be related to some comparison between word and stopWord lengths, but without further context, its exact meaning is unclear.

On the other hand, the (containsPunctuation(word)) part returns a boolean value based on the output of the containsPunctuation function. Similarly, (word.indexOf(stopWord) === 0) forms a distinct evaluation unrelated to containsPunctuation, where the indexOf function checks for an integer match at the beginning of the word.

An additional review of

(word.length === stopWord.length + 1)

reveals it likely verifies if word length exceeds stopWord by one character, possibly indicating extra punctuation. These assessments operate independently, requiring all conditions to resolve as true for the subsequent code block execution due to the use of &&.

If conjecturing about the logic behind

(word.length === stopWord.length + 1)

, it might signify the presence of a trailing punctuation mark unique to word, not present in stopWord. This check aims to validate the position of added characters given the behavior of the indexOf function at the start of comparisons.

For more details on the indexOf function usage in strings and arrays, refer to these resources:

String's IndexOf Documentation

Array's IndexOf Documentation

Answer 2

It appears there may be a misunderstanding in how the if statement is being interpreted, especially without clarity on the purpose of the isStopWord function. The

(word.length === stopWord.length + 1)

section seems to be related to some comparison between word and stopWord lengths, but without further context, its exact meaning is unclear.

On the other hand, the (containsPunctuation(word)) part returns a boolean value based on the output of the containsPunctuation function. Similarly, (word.indexOf(stopWord) === 0) forms a distinct evaluation unrelated to containsPunctuation, where the indexOf function checks for an integer match at the beginning of the word.

An additional review of

(word.length === stopWord.length + 1)

reveals it likely verifies if word length exceeds stopWord by one character, possibly indicating extra punctuation. These assessments operate independently, requiring all conditions to resolve as true for the subsequent code block execution due to the use of &&.

If conjecturing about the logic behind

(word.length === stopWord.length + 1)

, it might signify the presence of a trailing punctuation mark unique to word, not present in stopWord. This check aims to validate the position of added characters given the behavior of the indexOf function at the start of comparisons.

For more details on the indexOf function usage in strings and arrays, refer to these resources:

String's IndexOf Documentation

Array's IndexOf Documentation

Could anyone clarify the concept of how a function is able to be equivalent to zero?

Answer №1

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