2.5 - "Strings"

Review

  • for-loops help us to iterate through values (count and loop in a sequential order)

let answer = 0;

// Add 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10

for (let index = 1; index <= 10; index++) {

answer += index;

}

console.log(answer); // 55


  • Recall: Computers only know numbers, written in binary. So how do we see letters or type a document?

Mr. Squirrel's Joke of the Day

"Today I learned that if you turn a canoe over, you can wear it as a hat.


Because it's capsized!"

If today's lesson doesn't quite make sense, check out lessons 18 to 23 here.

Today's Lesson: "Strings"

  • A single letter is called a character (char).

  • Each character is a symbol (drawing) with a number behind it. The computer looks-up the symbol, based on the number.


  • Many characters together is called a String of characters. Like a string of Christmas lights.

    • For Example: The word hello is a string made of the chars 'h' 'e' 'l' 'l' 'o'.

    • A char is primitive. They're very boring. Not much we can do with them.

    • A String is an object. Lots of neat properties and functions available to them.

    • Note: JavaScript treats single letters as a String, not a char.


Properties and Functions


It is very important to remember that "a" and "A" are considered different. "Hello" != "hello"


A property is a fact about that object or thing.

Strings have a very important property: length

let myString = "Hello World!";

console.log(myString.length); // Prints 12 to the screen


A function - also known as a method - is something that an object can do or give or utilize to manipulate data or give a result.
Strings have lots of useful functions but the ones we might focus on are:

  • .charAt()

  • .toUpperCase() and .toLowerCase()

  • .charCodeAt()

  • .substring()

  • and many more, with awesome examples at w3schools!


Extracting & Changing Characters

  • There is a shortcut to the charAt() method for finding a char at a specific location:

    • Square brackets with a location (index): "Hello World"[6] will return 'W'

let text = "My name is Mr. Squirrel";
console.log(text.length); // 23
console.log(text[1]); // y
console.log(text[23]); // undefined


  • Now that we know for-loops, we can loop through a string!

let longText = "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious";

for (let letter = 0; letter < longText.length; letter++) {

console.log(longText[letter]);

}


  • Strings are immutable. This means you cannot modify a single character without destroying and recreating the memory space.
    let text = "My name is Mr. Squirrel";
    text[3] = "Z"; // This does nothing

3.4 Task(s) / Homework