.length is always 1

[maxwells]

Dear Friends,

The following is part of my form validation script. It checks that the
user name entered is in Wiki name format.

function checkup(theform){
var form = document.forms[theform];
var okay = true;
var wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/);
if (wikiName.length<3) {
alert(form.name.value + ' is not a WikiName - please use one word
with at least two capital letters');
okay = false;
}
return okay;
}

Normally, if the wikiName returns a match of more than three letters
then a successful match has been returned, so the name is in Wiki
format.

The thing is, even I do enter a valid Wiki name, such as "WikiName",
it is refused. So I put in a couple of debugging alert statements
before the if {} clause, to see what was going on:

alert (wikiName);
alert (wikiName.length);

The result was:

WikiN
1

How can this be? The string is correctly matched, and has 5
characters. So why would its length be reported as 1?

I tried this on Firefox and Explorer, same result both times.

Can anybody solve this mystery?

Thanks for your time,

Dalgetty

[Jorge]

On Jul 30, 3:44*pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Dear Friends,

The following is part of my form validation script. It checks that the
user name entered is in Wiki name format.

function checkup(theform){
* * * * var form = document.forms[theform];
* * * * var okay = true;
* * * * var wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/);
* * * * if (wikiName.length<3) {
* * * * * * * * alert(form.name.value + ' is not a WikiName - please use one word
with at least two capital letters');
* * * * * * * * okay = false;
* * * * }
* * * * return okay;

}

Normally, if the wikiName returns a match of more than three letters
then a successful match has been returned, so the name is in Wiki
format.

The thing is, even I do enter a valid Wiki name, such as "WikiName",
it is refused. So I put in a couple of debugging alert statements
before the if {} clause, to see what was going on:

* * * * alert (wikiName);
* * * * alert (wikiName.length);

The result was:

* * * * WikiN
* * * * 1

How can this be? The string is correctly matched, and has 5
characters. So why would its length be reported as 1?

I tried this on Firefox and Explorer, same result both times.

Can anybody solve this mystery?

alert(typeof wikiName) -"object"

Try:

var wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-
Z]/).toString();

or

var wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/) + "";

--Jorge.

[GArlington]

On Jul 30, 2:44 pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Dear Friends,

The following is part of my form validation script. It checks that the
user name entered is in Wiki name format.

function checkup(theform){
var form = document.forms[theform];
var okay = true;
var wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/);
if (wikiName.length<3) {
alert(form.name.value + ' is not a WikiName - please use one word
with at least two capital letters');
okay = false;
}
return okay;

}

Normally, if the wikiName returns a match of more than three letters
then a successful match has been returned, so the name is in Wiki
format.

The thing is, even I do enter a valid Wiki name, such as "WikiName",
it is refused. So I put in a couple of debugging alert statements
before the if {} clause, to see what was going on:

alert (wikiName);
alert (wikiName.length);

The result was:

WikiN
1

This is because value.match(reGexp) returns match(es if used with /g
flag) in array form, so your wikiName.length returns the size of the
returned array = 1.

>
How can this be? The string is correctly matched, and has 5
characters. So why would its length be reported as 1?

I tried this on Firefox and Explorer, same result both times.

Can anybody solve this mystery?

Thanks for your time,

Dalgetty

[maxwells]

Thanks friends, that did it!

I should have realised that match would return an array, but I never
would have guessed that alert() would try to print out an array by
outputting 1!

It works, thanks again

Dalgetty

[maxwells]

For the record - the working JavaScript validator for WikiName format:

function checkup(theform){
var form = document.forms[theform];
var okay = true;
if (form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/)) {
wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-
Z]/).toString();
if (wikiName.length<3) {
alert(form.name.value + ' is not a WikiName - please use one word
with at least two capital letters');
okay = false;
}
}
}

[Jorge]

On Jul 31, 3:15*pm, [e-mail] wrote:

For the record - the working JavaScript validator for WikiName format:

function checkup(theform){
* * * * var form = document.forms[theform];
* * * * var okay = true;
* * * * if (form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/)) {
* * * * * * wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-
Z]/).toString();
* * * * * * * * if (wikiName.length<3) {
* * * * * * * * * * * * alert(form.name.value + 'is not a WikiName - please use one word
with at least two capital letters');
* * * * * * * * * * * * okay = false;
* * * * * * * * }
* * * * }

You could as well use (array)[0], as GArlington pointed out, instead
of (array).toString().

That's probably more correct :

wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/)[0];

--Jorge.

[Dr J R Stockton]

In comp.lang.javascript message <bb872553-f0ee-4d12-a0ee-203925d5bd62@d7
7g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:35:59, Jorge
<jo***@jorgechamorro.composted:

>That's probably more correct :

wikiName = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/)[0];

code: wikiName = "xx3d".match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/)[0];

Firefox Error Console :
Error: "xx3d".match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/) has no properties
Source File: file:///C:/HOMEPAGE/js-quick.htm
Line: 286

I suggest building on

M = form.name.value.match(/[A-Z][a-z0-9]*[0-9A-Z]/)
if (M) { wikiName = M[0] ; ... }

But a complete, reliable solution requires a full authoritative
definition of the wikiName format; and it behoves the OP to provide [a
link to] that.

It's a good idea to read the newsgroup c.l.j and its FAQ. See below.

--
(c) John Stockton, nr London UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk IE7 FF2 Op9 Sf3
news:comp.lang.javascript FAQ <URL:http://www.jibbering.com/faq/index.html>.
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/js-index.htmjscr maths, dates, sources.
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/TP/BP/Delphi/jscr/&c, FAQ items, links.