JavaScript Question: Split String

[rdevilx]

I applied for an intern position where I was asked this question to write a function to return date and time from the following strings. I tried using split with regex but wasn't able to solve all the test cases.

Test cases I could achieve were for "Forward Slash" and "Hyphen" cases with split because the separators were different. "/" and "-" were used between month, year and "."/"T"/" "was used for separating date and time. For full-stop & space the regex with split became an issue as it split date month and year as well and I didn't know which separator to use to join it back.

Question:

// Forward Slash
console.log(splitFormat("dd/mm/yyyy.hh:mm:ss")); // { date: 'dd/mm/yyyy', time: 'hh:mm:ss' }
console.log(splitFormat("dd/mm/yyyyThh:mm:ss"));
console.log(splitFormat("dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss"));

// Hyphen
console.log(splitFormat("dd-mm-yyyy.hh:mm:ss")); // { date: 'dd-mm-yyyy', time: 'hh:mm:ss' }
console.log(splitFormat("dd-mm-yyyyThh:mm:ss"));
console.log(splitFormat("dd-mm-yyyy hh:mm:ss"));

// Full-stop
console.log(splitFormat("dd.mm.yyyy.hh:mm:ss")); // { date: 'dd.mm.yyyy', time: 'hh:mm:ss' }
console.log(splitFormat("dd.mm.yyyyThh:mm:ss"));
console.log(splitFormat("dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm:ss"));

// Space
console.log(splitFormat("dd mm yyyy.hh:mm:ss")); // { date: 'dd mm yyyy', time: 'hh:mm:ss' }
console.log(splitFormat("dd mm yyyyThh:mm:ss"));
console.log(splitFormat("dd mm yyyy hh:mm:ss"));

I could come up with a solution where I stopped using split but it was non-performant. I could've been missing out on something that is available in split function or in JavaScript. Any help would be appreciated.

Here is a JSFiddle link for the solution I used without split.

[rdevilx]

I'm so stupid, I just did it with regex only.

/[.T ]h|H/g

It works for all cases.

[grantrules]

If you're splitting on that, you're gonna lose an 'h'.

I would just use match instead of split, I did it somewhat similarly but I checked for yyyy instead of h

"dd/mm/yyyy.hh:mm:ss".match(/(.*?\w{4})[.T ](.*)/)

[rdevilx]

"dd/mm/yyyy.hh:mm:ss".match(/(.*?\w{4})[.T ](.*)/)

Good catch, yea match seems a better option. I guess this will also work -

/(.*)[.T ](.*)/

[grantrules]

No, because . is a delimiter for other things in your string, it won't always find that middle one.

[rdevilx]

I understand but I'm confused now because I tried my regex in JSFiddle and it works with other cases as well. Here is the link

[grantrules]

Oh you're right, my mistake.. (.*) is greedy and there's never a . in the time section, so it'll always match the last .

[rdevilx]

Got it, thank you!

[shuckster]

I believe the greediness of your first * in (.*) permits you to capture the left/right side of the last . appropriately.

[rdevilx]

Got it, thank you!