split-smartly

split strings by separator(s), ignoring text inside quotes and brackets. Can be easily tuned with a lot of flexible options

What is it for ?

Sometimes we need to split string, ignoring separators inside quotes and/or brackets(or any other symbols). For in case when we want to parse sql fields list, separated by comma

SELECT 1 as numberField, "3,4,5" as stringField, MAX(3, 5) as calculatedField

Obviously, commas inside string and commas, separated MAX-function parametetrs, should be ignored. Original split function of String object will not return proper result, so splitSmartly is done to manage such kind of splitting easily and nicely

Install

Install with npm:

$ npm i split-smartly

Import

import splitSmartly from 'split-smartly'

Syntax

splitSmartly([text[, separators[, options]]])

Return value

• if text parameter is not skipped, function will return an array of results. The format of array items will be depend on options. In a simpliest case it is an array of strings between separators, found in text.
• If text parameter is skipped, function will return another function with separators and options bound to it, so we can call this function any times we want with different text parameter values

Examples

1 - call without options

Without any options, splitSmartly function by default ignores separators inside quotes (to avoid such behaviour we can set ignoreInsideQuotes option to false)

const string = 'one _ two _ "three _ four" _ five _ six'
res = splitSmartly(string, '_');
// res: ['one', 'two', '"three _ four"', 'five', 'six']

2 - call with brackets option set to true

Set brackets option to true to prevent from searching separators inside brackets (round, square and figure ones)

const string = '(one _ two) _ "three _ four" _ five _ six'
res = splitSmartly(string, '_', { brackets: true });
// res: ['(one _ two)', '"three _ four"', 'five', 'six']

3 - call with brackets option set to arbitrary strings

Strings for bracket option can be assigned in next formats:

• array of tupples [['(', ')'], ['<<', '>>']], where in each tupple first element is opening bracket and second one is closing bracket
• object { '(': ')', '<<': '>>' } where in each key/value pair key is opening bracket and value is closing
• string - it is comma separted string, where each part is pair of brackets, separated with space symbol. In case if opening and closing string has just one character - space symbol can be skipped '(),<< >>'

const string = '(one / two) / "three / four" / <<five / six>>'
const res1 = splitSmartly(string, '/', { brackets: [['(', ')'], ['<<', '>>']] })
const res2 = splitSmartly(string, '/', { brackets: { '(': ')', '<<': '>>' } })
const res3 = splitSmartly(string, '/', { brackets: '(), << >>' })
// res1, res2, res3: [
//  '(one / two)', 
//  '"three / four"', 
//  '<<five / six>>'
// ]

4 - call with array of strings as separator parameter

Use array of strings as separators parameter to split text in any position where one of these strings occur

res = splitSmartly('SELECT best FROM life', ['SELECT ', 'FROM ']);
// res: ['', 'best', 'life']

5 - call with regular expression as separator parameter

Use regular expression as separators parameter, so any matches will be used as separators to split string. Do not forget global flag and ignore case flag if it is needed

res = splitSmartly('p1: point first p2: point second',  /p\d:/gi)
// res: ['', 'point first', 'point second']

6 - call with setting includeSeparatorMode option

Set includeSeparatorMode option to include separator to result array. It can take one of followed values ('NONE' by default)

• "SEPARATELY" - separator will be returned as distinct element of result array
• "RIGHT" - separator will be returned in tupple together with string right from it
• "LEFT" - separator will be returned in tupple together with string left from it
• 'ONLY' - only separator will be returned. It can be used when we do not need to split string, but just to find matches ignoring quotes and/or brackets
• 'NONE' - only strings between separators will be returned

res = splitSmartly('SELECT best FROM life', ['SELECT ', 'FROM '], { includeSeparatorMode: 'SEPARATELY' });
// res: ['', 'SELECT ', 'best', 'FROM ', 'life']

res = splitSmartly('SELECT best FROM life', ['SELECT ', 'FROM '], { includeSeparatorMode: 'RIGHT' });
// res: [['SELECT ','best'],['FROM ','life']]

res = splitSmartly('SELECT best FROM life', ['SELECT ', 'FROM '], { includeSeparatorMode: 'ONLY' });
// res: ['SELECT ', 'FROM ']

7 - call with separators and text in different cases(upper/lower)

By default ignoreCase option is set to true, so this code will work perfectly well

res = splitSmartly('select best FROM life', ['SELECT ', 'FROM '], { includeSeparatorMode: 'RIGHT' });
// res: [['SELECT ','best'],['FROM ','life']]

but if we will set it to false, result will be different

res = splitSmartly('select best FROM life', ['SELECT ', 'FROM '], { includeSeparatorMode: 'RIGHT', ignoreCase: false });
// res: [['', 'select best'], ['FROM ', 'life']]

8 - call with mentions option

Assign string or array of strings to mentions option to search these strings in each result string. Then function will return array of objects, where property text will have text between separators and if it includes one or more strings from mentions option it will have mentions property with array of found mentions.

const string = 'Peter loves Mary and Mary loves Johnny and Jonny loves Steve'
const mentions = ['STEVE', 'PETER']
 
const res = splitSmartly(string, 'AND', { mentions });
// res: [
//  { text:'Peter loves Mary', mentions:['PETER']},
//  {text:'Mary loves Johnny'},
//  {text:'Jonny loves Steve', mentions:['STEVE']}
//]

9 - using check option

Assign callback function to check option. This way in some conditions we can reject to break string in position of separator occur if our function will not return true. As first and only parameter check function get an object with the following keys: string, separator, textAfter, mentions

In following code we avoid to break string if separator AND is found right after BETWEEN

const string = 'life is long AND love BETWEEN pleasure AND pain'
const check = ({ separator, string, textAfter, mentions }) => {
  return !string.toUpperCase().includes(' BETWEEN ');
}
 
const res = splitSmartly(string, 'AND', { check });
// res: ['life is long','love BETWEEN pleasure AND pain']

the same result we can be achieved in a more beautiful way using mentions option

const string = 'life is long AND love BETWEEN pleasure AND pain'
const check = ({ mentions }) => !mentions.length
 
const res = splitSmartly(string, 'AND', { check, mentions: ' BETWEEN ' });
// res: ['life is long','love BETWEEN pleasure AND pain']

10 - getting selected parts if result using indexes option

Set indexes option to numeric value or to array on numbers - to get just some of found strings as result

res = splitSmartly('One | Two | Three | Four', '|', { indexes: [1, 3] });
// res: ['Two','Four']

if indexes option set to particular number then function will return just result on this position, not an array

res = splitSmartly('One | Two | Three | Four', '|', { indexes: 2 });
// res: 'Three'

11 - call with searchWithin option

if this option is set to true, then separators parameter is ignored and in result array we will have strings found between brackets

res = splitSmartly('There is a lot of (hidden things) to discover, which {are not obvious} in our lifes', null, { brackets: { '(': ')', '{': '}' } });
// res: ['hidden things','are not obvious']

There is a short syntax for this option

res = splitSmartly.searchWithin(string, { '(': ')', '{': '}' })

using this syntax, we can skip second parameter, and in last parameter we can just pass the brackets option in case we have no other options, except brackets

12 - creating prepared split function

we can prepare split function with some separators and options and later call it to split some text

const splitQuery = splitSmartly(['SELECT ', 'FROM ', 'WHERE '], { brackets: true, includeSeparatorMode: 'RIGHT });
 
const res1 = splitQuery('select * from nightSky where millionsOfStars')
const res2 = splitQuery('select 1, 2, 3, 10 from numbers where true')

also as second parameter we can pass additional options, which will be merged with existing options in prepared function

const splitQuery = splitSmartly(['SELECT ', 'FROM ', 'WHERE '], { brackets: true, includeSeparatorMode: 'RIGHT });
 
const res1 = splitQuery('select * from nightSky where millionsOfStars', { trimSeparators: true })

13 - call special functions of prepared function

instead of using prepared function as function we can call some of its props-functions for getting indexes:

• getIndexes - returns results with indexes passed as second parameter
• getOne - returns result from position passed as second parameter
• getFirst - returns first found result

const splitQuery = splitSmartly(['SELECT ', 'FROM ', 'WHERE '], { brackets: true });
 
const res1 = splitQuery.getFirst('select * from nightSky where millionsOfStars')
// res1: '*'
 
const res2 = splitQuery.getOne('select * from nightSky where millionsOfStars', 1)
// res2: ['night sky']
 
const res3 = splitQuery.getIndexes('select * from nightSky where millionsOfStars', [1, 2])
// res3: ['night sky', 'millionsOfStars]

14 - call with returnIterator option set to true

Set returnIterator option to true if you want to get iterator instead of ready array. It can be useful in case where we have a long long string and need just several first results and the rest is optional.

const resAsIterator = splitQuery('1, 2, 3, 4, 5', ',', { returnIterator: true })

This iterator can be use in loops as any iterable object and also has two methods

• getNext()
• getRest()

to get next and all the rest results accordingly

const resAsIterator = splitQuery('1, 2, 3, 4, 5', ',', { returnIterator: true })
const res1 = resAsIterator.getNext() // '1'
const res2 = resAsIterator.getNext() // '2'
const res3 = resAsIterator.getRest() // ['3', '4', '5']

TO BE CONTINUED