How can I efficiently extract neighboring characters from a JavaScript array of strings?

Question

How can I efficiently extract neighboring characters from a JavaScript array of strings?

Imagine this scenario:

We have an array like this: var arr = [ "Exploring the zoo, we saw every kangaroo jump and quite a few carried babies.", "The wizard quickly jinxed the gnomes before they vaporized.", "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."];

I am currently working on a way to extract characters surrounding a specific input in the array. For example, if I enter "jinxed", I want to retrieve "wizard quickly" and "gnomes before". It doesn't have to be entire words, just a few characters around the input. I've been struggling with this problem, so any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

javascript arrays string

Answer 1

Answer №1

function searchArrayForWord(array, term) {

    // This function aims to help find a specific word within an array.
    // It looks for the first occurrence of the word but may not cover all cases or be optimized.
    // Further specifications can make it more versatile.
    // Hopefully, this code snippet provides some assistance.

    var 
        // utilities
        regWord = /\w+/g,
        wordsBefore, wordsAfter,
        matchedWord,
        found = false;

    // loop through the given array
    array.forEach(function(item) {

    if (found) {
      // skip iteration if the word is already found
      return false;
    }

    // clear arrays for words before and after the target word
    wordsBefore = []; 
    wordsAfter = [];

    // extract words from the current array item
    while (match = regWord.exec(item)) {

      // get the matched word 
      matchedWord = match[0].toLowerCase();

      // check if the desired word is found
      if (matchedWord === term.toLowerCase()) {

        // mark as found
        found = true;

      } else {
        // handle words that appear before or after the target word

        if (!found) {
          // populate the array of words before
          wordsBefore.push(matchedWord);

        } else {
          // populate the array of words after the target word
          wordsAfter.push(matchedWord);

        }

      }

    }

  });

  // return an object with words before and after the target word
  return {
    wordsBefore: wordsBefore,
    wordsAfter: wordsAfter 
  } 

}

Answer 2

function searchArrayForWord(array, term) {

    // This function aims to help find a specific word within an array.
    // It looks for the first occurrence of the word but may not cover all cases or be optimized.
    // Further specifications can make it more versatile.
    // Hopefully, this code snippet provides some assistance.

    var 
        // utilities
        regWord = /\w+/g,
        wordsBefore, wordsAfter,
        matchedWord,
        found = false;

    // loop through the given array
    array.forEach(function(item) {

    if (found) {
      // skip iteration if the word is already found
      return false;
    }

    // clear arrays for words before and after the target word
    wordsBefore = []; 
    wordsAfter = [];

    // extract words from the current array item
    while (match = regWord.exec(item)) {

      // get the matched word 
      matchedWord = match[0].toLowerCase();

      // check if the desired word is found
      if (matchedWord === term.toLowerCase()) {

        // mark as found
        found = true;

      } else {
        // handle words that appear before or after the target word

        if (!found) {
          // populate the array of words before
          wordsBefore.push(matchedWord);

        } else {
          // populate the array of words after the target word
          wordsAfter.push(matchedWord);

        }

      }

    }

  });

  // return an object with words before and after the target word
  return {
    wordsBefore: wordsBefore,
    wordsAfter: wordsAfter 
  } 

}

Answer 3

Answer №2

To retrieve the text before and after the term jinxed, you can utilize the function split. From there, you can use substr to extract either the first or last characters of each section:

let sentence = "The mystical cat jinxed the cursed mouse with a spell";
let parts = sentence.split('jinxed');

parts == [ 'The mystical cat ', ' the cursed mouse with a spell' ]

parts[0].substr(-8) == 'stical cat '
parts[1].substr(0,10) == ' the cursed'

Answer 4

To retrieve the text before and after the term jinxed, you can utilize the function split. From there, you can use substr to extract either the first or last characters of each section:

let sentence = "The mystical cat jinxed the cursed mouse with a spell";
let parts = sentence.split('jinxed');

parts == [ 'The mystical cat ', ' the cursed mouse with a spell' ]

parts[0].substr(-8) == 'stical cat '
parts[1].substr(0,10) == ' the cursed'

Answer 5

Answer №3

If you're looking to search for specific characters within a string, you can utilize RegEx match function:

function search(s,q, msg) {
  // utilize RegEx to match the characters before and after the query
  var matched = s.match(new RegExp("(.|^)" + q + "(.|$)"));
console.log(matched);
  // if there was a match found, remove the 1st element (which is the entire matched pattern)
  if (matched) {
    if(matched.length>1) {matched = matched.splice(1)}
    // matched[0] represents the character before, matched[1] represents the character after
    alert(msg + " '" + matched[0] + "', '" + matched[1] + "'");
  } else {
    alert(msg + " not found");
  }
}

search("The wizard quickly jinxed the gnomes before they vaporized.","jinxed", "in the middle");
search("jinxed the gnomes before they vaporized.","jinxed", "in the beginning");
search("The wizard quickly jinxed","jinxed","in the end");
search("jinxed","jinxed","full");
search("The wizard quickly","jinxed","not in string");

It's worth noting that this method also applies when the target string is located at the beginning or end of the line.

Answer 6

If you're looking to search for specific characters within a string, you can utilize RegEx match function:

function search(s,q, msg) {
  // utilize RegEx to match the characters before and after the query
  var matched = s.match(new RegExp("(.|^)" + q + "(.|$)"));
console.log(matched);
  // if there was a match found, remove the 1st element (which is the entire matched pattern)
  if (matched) {
    if(matched.length>1) {matched = matched.splice(1)}
    // matched[0] represents the character before, matched[1] represents the character after
    alert(msg + " '" + matched[0] + "', '" + matched[1] + "'");
  } else {
    alert(msg + " not found");
  }
}

search("The wizard quickly jinxed the gnomes before they vaporized.","jinxed", "in the middle");
search("jinxed the gnomes before they vaporized.","jinxed", "in the beginning");
search("The wizard quickly jinxed","jinxed","in the end");
search("jinxed","jinxed","full");
search("The wizard quickly","jinxed","not in string");

It's worth noting that this method also applies when the target string is located at the beginning or end of the line.

How can I efficiently extract neighboring characters from a JavaScript array of strings?

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

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