Give space to array of signs in the string

July 27, 2023

considering each sign always in the start or end of the string only, we want to give each sgin a space before or after so as a word:

The desired result is commented, My function has an issue as you see:

modify('you always have to wake up?'); // you always have to wake up ? 

modify('...you always have to wake up'); // ... you always have to wake up

modify('...you always have to wake up?!'); // ... you always have to wake up ?!

function modify(string) {
    const sgins = ['?', '!', '...', '?!', '!?', '!!', '.'];
  for (let a = 0; a < sgins.length; a++) {
    const split = string.split(sgins[a]);
    string = string.replaceAll(sgins[a], ` ${sgins[a]} `).trim();
  }
  console.log(string);
}

How would you do this?

>Solution :

You could use a simple regex:

string.replace(/$[?!.]+/, '$& ');

Means replace all continuous ?!. characters with the characters plus a space in the beginning of the string. The same for the end.

modify('you always have to wake up?'); // you always have to wake up ? 

modify('...you always have to wake up'); // ... you always have to wake up

modify('...you always have to wake up?!'); // ... you always have to wake up ?!

function modify(string) {
   string = string.replace(/^[?!.]+/, '$& ').replace(/[?!.]+$/, ' $&');
   console.log(string);
}

If you need exact prefixes you can build the regexp:

modify('you always have to wake up?'); // you always have to wake up ? 

modify('...you always have to wake up'); // ... you always have to wake up

modify('...you always have to wake up?!'); // ... you always have to wake up ?!

function modify(string) {

  const sgins = ['?', '!', '...', '?!', '!?', '!!', '.'];

  const options = sgins.sort((a, b) => b.length - a.length).map(prefix => [...prefix].map(c => '\\' + c).join('')).join('|');

  string = string.replace(new RegExp('^(' + options + ')'), '$1 ').replace(new RegExp('(' + options + ')$'), ' $1');
  
  console.log(string);
}