Chapter 8: Forms and Regular Expressions

Formatting and Sorting Strings

See it run: Formatting and Sorting Strings

Script 8.6

This JavaScript takes a bunch of names in any format and order and turns them into a neat and orderly list.

window.onload = initForms;

function initForms() {
	for (var i=0; i< document.forms.length; i++) {
		document.forms[i].onsubmit = function() {return validForm();}
	}
}

function validForm() {
	var allTags = document.getElementsByTagName("*");

for (var i=0; i<allTags.length; i++) {
		validTag(allTags[i]);
	}
	return false;

function validTag(thisTag) {
		var allClasses = thisTag.className.split(" ");
	
		for (var j=0; j<allClasses.length; j++) {
			validBasedOnClass(allClasses[j]);
		}

function validBasedOnClass(thisClass) {
			switch(thisClass) {
				case "":
					break;
				case "nameList":
					thisTag.value = nameList(thisTag.value);
				default:
			}
		}
		
		function nameList(inNameList) {
			var newNames = new Array;
			var newNameField = "";

var re = /\s*\n\s*/;
			var nameList = inNameList.split(re);

re = /^(\S)(\S+)\s(\S)(\S+)$/;

for (var k=0; k<nameList.length; k++) {
				if (nameList[k]) {
					re.exec(nameList[k]);
					newNames[k] = RegExp.$3.toUpperCase() + RegExp.$4.toLowerCase() + ", " + RegExp.$1.toUpperCase() + RegExp.$2.toLowerCase();
				}
			}

newNames.sort();
			for (k=0; k<newNames.length; k++) {
				newNameField += newNames[k] + "\n";
			}
			return newNameField;
		}
	}
}

Contents:

Formatting and Sorting Strings

Script 8.6