The Forward Slash And Vertical Bar

[iwato 19]

QUESTION: Could someone please explain the use of the slash and vertical bar in the following statement:if (/loaded|complete/.test(document.readyState)) return initfb();Roddy

[jeffman 86]

The unquoted pair of slashes creates a regular expression object. The expression in this case is looking for an instance of the strings "loaded" or "complete". The bar is a regex OR operator. (Not exactly, but close enough.) The dot followed by the test() method simply means that test() is a method of a regex object. It's a little funky to see a dot.property hanging off a forward slash, but it's legal. The writer could have done one of these instead:var re = /loaded|complete/;if (re.test(document.readyState)) return initfb();ORvar re = new RegExp("loaded|complete");if (re.test(document.readyState)) return initfb();

Edited May 15, 2009 by Deirdre's Dad

[chibineku 0]

I love how elegant that is...you say funky, but I say neat. How does one come to learn the shorthand (shortcut?) methods that are a little off the beaten track?

[jeffman 86]

I forget where I first saw that. Sometimes I look at scripts in pages that interest me. Firefox 3 Beta makes linking to script documents a lot easier. Sometimes I surf for javascript tricks and tips. Sometimes I'll spot something when I'm Googling a problem. It adds up.

[iwato 19]

The dot followed by the test() method simply means that test() is a method of a regex object. It's a little funky to see a dot.property hanging off a forward slash, but it's legal.

Thanks, Deirdre's Dad. I substituted the text that you suggested and the result was the same. I still have not fixed the problem, but at least my knowledge of Javascript has increased.Roddy

[jeffman 86]

What is the problem?