split() and pop()

separator and end of line

[nyteshade]

I'm learning to use String methods with RegExp object. I have:

mystr = 'Cinnamon, 1223, Peach, 1224, Jasmine, 1225, Pumpkin, 1226, Apple, 1227';

myre = /[^a-z]+/i; //split on

var arr = mystr.split(myre);

console.log(arr):
["Cinnamon", "Peach", "Jasmine", "Pumpkin", "Apple", ""]

Notice the empty element thingy, the output I want is:

["Cinnamon", "Peach", "Jasmine", "Pumpkin", "Apple"]

So I've tried this:

arr = mystr.split(/[^a-z]+/i);
arr.pop();

console.log(arr);
//["Cinnamon", "Peach", "Jasmine", "Pumpkin", "Apple"]

Which gives me what I want but my question is: is this the accepted way to handle a str.split() when the 'separator' is at the end of the string? I'm assuming this must happen often enough to warrant a standard way.

One last thing, I tried doing:

arr = mystr.split(/[^a-z]+/i).pop();

As shown in this forum and other places, but when I look in console.log it tells me 'empty string'. Thanks all.

[daveVk]

arr = mystr.split(/[^a-z]+/i).pop()

is equiv to

var temp = mystr.split(/[^a-z]+/i);
arr = temp.pop();

the last item is removed from temp.
pop() returns the removed item, hence empty string.

[nyteshade]

Thanks daveVk. That makes sense, if there was a way to 'walk thru' each regular expression step in Firefox Firebug then that would help (btw, is there?).

So is there a way to make...

arr = mystr.split(/[^a-z]+/i);
arr.pop();

... an elegant one-liner?

[daveVk]

( arr = mystr.split(/[^a-z]+/i) ).pop();

would probably work, elegant I wonder ?

On a tangent, this regEx look a bit fragile, eg "blue berry" comes out as "blue" and "berry".

[nyteshade]

( arr = mystr.split(/[^a-z]+/i) ).pop();

Works, thanks; and just needed to add a space in the regex to fix the Blue Berry.

mystr = 'Cinnamon, 1223, Peach, 1224, Jasmine, 1225, Pumpkin, 1226, Apple Spice, 1227, Blue Berry, 0420';
myre = /[^a-z]+ /i;//split on 

//gives
["Cinnamon", "Peach", "Jasmine", "Pumpkin", "Apple Spice", "Blue Berry"]

;)