Develop Reference

How to accept all punctuation from form input

I'm creating a language quiz where users can write down their answers, like a translation for example. But I've noticed, when the answer requires punctuation, like a quotation mark, that some devices use a different style of punctuation and that will result in a wrong answer, because the punctuation used in the correct answer is just a bit different.
Here's the javascript I'm using to check answers:
<script>
var answers = {
q1: ["Auto's"]
};
function markAnswers(id) {
$(`#q${id}`).each(function () {
if ($.inArray(this.value, answers[this.id]) === -1) {
$(this).parent().append(`<br><span class='incorrect'>✗ Correct answer = ${answers[this.id]}</span>`);
} else {
$(this).parent().append("<br><span class='correct'>✓ Correct!</span>");
}
});
}
$("form").on("submit", function (e) {
e.preventDefault();
const id = e.target.id.replace("formId", "");
markAnswers(id);
$(`#submitId${id}`).each(function () {
this.setAttribute("disabled", true);
this.value = "Check answer";
});
});
</script>
As you can see, here I have an answer that requires a single quote ('), but apparently not all single quotes are equal.
I did find some code to replace specific punctuation and it's this: [^\w\s\']|_
But I'm not sure how to implement it and I would rather just accept the different punctuation. My only concerns are quotation marks and whitespace (as autofill on phones and tablets can create space).
Any suggestion on how to implement this is much appreciated. Thanks!
Edit:
Based on #Don't Panic's earlier versions of his code below (without .clean and .display) I want to make a few tweaks to it, but before I can, the code below always shows ✗ Correct answer = no matter if the answer is typed correctly or not. What could be wrong?
And about the tweaks. I've come to understand that Apple uses Smart Punctuation and this is a feature you can turn off. So I will ask my students to do that. Because I've tested it and without this feature toggled on, it will display a more straight/normal apostrophe and the answer will be accepted as correct. But since apostrophes and perhaps some other punctuation like a comma will be important, I want to add those to the existing line of code ^a-zA-Z\d. And I was thinking to at least ignore periods and extra spaces.
Thank you for all the help!
// Write out your answers without punctuation
var answers = {
q1: ["Autos"]
};
function markAnswers(id) {
$(`#q${id}`).each(function () {
// First, strip out any punctuation the user has entered
let userAnswer = this.value.replace(/[^a-zA-Z\d]/g,'');
// Now check if that "cleaned" value matches your answer
if ($.inArray(userAnswer, answers[this.id]) === -1) {
$(this).parent().append(`<br><span class='incorrect'>✗ Correct answer = ${answers[this.id]}</span>`);
} else {
$(this).parent().append("<br><span class='correct'>✓ Correct!</span>");
}
});
}

Take the user's input, strip out all punctuation, do the same to your answer, and compare the two. This way a user can use any punctuation they like, but it will just be stripped out and not part of the comparison.
This won't work if your questions are eg related to grammar, eg if you are testing when and where an apostrophe is correct, of course - in those cases the apostrophe is the answer!
The exact regular expression will depend on what has to be in your questions. Let's say you need all uppper- and lower-case letters and numbers:
$('button').on('click', function() {
markAnswers(1)
});
// Correct answers
var answers = {
"q1": "Auto's"
};
function markAnswers(id) {
$(`#q${id}`).each(function () {
// First, strip out any punctuation the user has entered
let userAnswer = this.value.replace(/[^a-zA-Z\d]/g,'');
// Strip any punctuation from the right answer
let correct = answers[this.id].replace(/[^a-zA-Z\d]/g,'');
// Now check if they match
if (userAnswer !== correct) {
$(this).parent().append(`<br><span class='incorrect'>✗ Correct answer = ${answers[this.id]}</span>`);
} else {
$(this).parent().append("<br><span class='correct'>✓ Correct!</span>");
}
});
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div>
What is the plural of <b>Auto</b>?
<input id='q1' type='text'>
<button>Check!</button>
</div>

To answer your new question - your code works fine for me.
I've added a button handler to actually run the check, but otherwise this is a copy-paste of your code.
If I type asdf, I get "✗ Correct answer = Autos", which is correct;
If I type autos, I get "✗ Correct answer = Autos", which is correct (lower case "a" instead of "A");
If I type Autos, I get "✓ Correct!", which is correct;
If I type "Auto's" (including those quotes), I get "✓ Correct!", which is correct;
$('button').on('click', function() {
markAnswers(1)
});
// Write out your answers without punctuation
var answers = {
q1: ["Autos"]
};
function markAnswers(id) {
$(`#q${id}`).each(function () {
// First, strip out any punctuation the user has entered
let userAnswer = this.value.replace(/[^a-zA-Z\d]/g,'');
// Now check if that "cleaned" value matches your answer
if ($.inArray(userAnswer, answers[this.id]) === -1) {
$(this).parent().append(`<br><span class='incorrect'>✗ Correct answer = ${answers[this.id]}</span>`);
} else {
$(this).parent().append("<br><span class='correct'>✓ Correct!</span>");
}
});
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div>
What is the plural of <b>Auto</b>?
<input id='q1' type='text'>
<button>Check!</button>
</div>

Can't get values past array[0] to translate properly

Okay, to start with I should mention this is a very small personal project, and I've only have a handful of coding classes several years ago now. I can figure out a lot of the (very) basics, but have a hard time troubleshooting. I'm in a little bit over my head here, and need a dumbed down solution.
I'm trying to put together a VERY simple translator that takes in a word or sentence from the user via a text input box, puts each word of the string into an array, translates each word in order, then spits out each translated word in the order it was input. For example, typing "I like cats" would output "Ich mag Katze" in German.
I've got most of it, but I CAN'T get anything but the first array element to translate. It comes out like "Ich like cats".
I've used a loop, probably because I'm an amateur and don't know another way of doing this, and I'd rather not use any libraries or anything. This is a very small project I want to have a couple of friends utilize locally; and I know there has to be some very simple code that will just take a string, put it into an array, swap one word for another word, and then output the results, but I'm damned if I can make it work.
What I currently have is the closest I've gotten, but like I said, it doesn't work. I've jerry-rigged the loop and clearly that's the totally wrong approach, but I can't see the forest for the trees. If you can help me, please make it "Javascript for Babies" picture book levels of simple, I cannot stress enough how inexperienced I am. This is just supposed to be a fun little extra thing for my D&D group.
function checkForTranslation(input, outputDiv) {
var input = document.getElementById("inputTextField").value;
var outputDiv = document.getElementById("translationOutputDiv");
input = input.toLowerCase();
//puts user input into an array and then outputs it word by word
const myArray = input.split(" "); //added .split, thank you James, still otherwise broken
let output = "";
let translation = "";
for (let i = 0; i < myArray.length; i++) {
output += myArray[i]; //up to here, this works perfectly to put each word in the string into an array
//prints all words but doesnt translate the second onwards
translation += myArray[i];
if (output == "") {
//document.getElementById("print2").innerHTML = "Translation Here";
}
else if (output == "apple") {
translation = "x-ray";
}
else if (output == "banana") {
translation = "yak";
}
else {
translation = "???";
}
output += " "; //adds a space when displaying original user input
} // END FOR LOOP
document.getElementById("print").innerHTML = output; //this outputs the original user input to the screen
document.getElementById("print3").innerHTML = translation; //this should output the translated output to the screen
} // END FUNCTION CHECKFORTRANSLATION
What it looks like
P.S. I'm not worried about Best Practices here, this is supposed to be a quickie project that I can send to a couple friends and they can open the HTML doc, saved locally, in their browser when they want to mess around with it if they want their half-orc character to say "die by my hammer!" or something. If you have suggestions for making it neater great, but I'm not worried about a mess, no one is going to be reading this but me, and hopefully once it's fixed I'll never have to read it again either!

Since it is a manual simple translation, you should just create a "dictionary" and use it to get the translations.
var dictionary = {
"apple": "x-ray",
"banana": "yak"
}
function checkForTranslation() {
var input = document.getElementById("inputTextField").value.toLowerCase();
var words = input
.split(' ') // split string to words
.filter(function(word) { // remove empty words
return word.length > 0
});
var translatedWords = words.map(function(word) {
var wordTranslation = dictionary[word]; // get from dictionary
if (wordTranslation) {
return wordTranslation;
} else { // if word was not found in dictionary
return "???";
}
});
var translatedText = translatedWords.join(' ');
document.getElementById("translationOutputDiv").innerHTML = translatedText;
}
document.getElementById('translate').addEventListener('click', function() {
checkForTranslation();
});
<input type="text" id="inputTextField" />
<button id="translate">translate</button>
<br/>
<hr />
<div id="translationOutputDiv"></div>
Or if you want it a little more organized, you could use
const dictionary = {
"apple": "x-ray",
"banana": "yak"
}
function getTranslation(string) {
return string
.toLowerCase()
.split(' ')
.filter(word => word)
.map(word => dictionary[word] || '???')
.join(' ');
}
function translate(inputEl, outputEl) {
outputEl.innerHTML = getTranslation(inputEl.value);
}
document.querySelector('#translate').addEventListener('click', function() {
const input = document.querySelector('#inputTextField');
const output = document.querySelector('#translationOutputDiv');
translate(input, output);
});
<input type="text" id="inputTextField" />
<button id="translate">translate</button>
<br/>
<hr />
<div id="translationOutputDiv"></div>

Writing a Number Guessing program in JavaScript

Here is the question im trying to address and here is what I have. I am not sure what i've done wrong but it will not run in WebStorm:
alert("This is question 1");
var rndmNum = Math.rndmNum();
rndmNum = rndmNum * 100 + 1;
var i = 0;
do {
var rndmNum = prompt;
function guessNum(guess) {
if (guess < rndmNum);
}
alert("Your guess is too low");
} else if (guess > rndmNum) {
alert("Your guess is too high");
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head lang="en">
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Question 1</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Question 1</h1>
<p>
This is a page used to run/execute some JavaScript.
</p>
<p>
Next question.
</p>
<p>
Return home.
</p>
</body>
</html>
does anyone see any problems in what I have done or have any recommendations? Feedback is appreciated thanks

There's a syntax error:
function guessNum(guess) {
if (guess<rndmNum);
}
alert ("Your guess is too low");
}
else if (guess>rndmNum) {
alert("Your guess is too high");
}
Should be:
function guessNum(guess) {
if (guess<rndmNum) {
alert ("Your guess is too low");
}
else if (guess>rndmNum) {
alert("Your guess is too high");
}
}
You have an else if when your if statement was separated by an alert.
Also
Your brackets {} do not properly close.
The do is not syntactically correct or needed.
Math.rndmNum() is not a real method, think you want Math.random()

I only briefly looked at it. I don't really approve of giving answers for homework questions, but I will pose a question for you.
What if someone puts in something besides a number? You check if the answer is lower or higher, but you never make sure that it's actually a number.
You might want to consider either validating that the answer being checked is a number before checking it, or checking only for the answer you're looking for.
Also, var i = 0. I'll assume that you're going to use that later in your code, but i is pretty much a universal JavaScript variable.
What you're doing there is setting the global variable i to = 0, and most likely you're going to change that somewhere else in your code. Then you might run a for loop that rewrites i, or you might have an extension that rewrites it.
Consider naming your variables more uniquely, or keep the scope of the variables that aren't unique to functions or loops.

first of all. if you want to generate random number use:
Math.random() because Math.rndmNum is undefined
prompt is function and to use it you should write:
var rndmNum = prompt('geuss a number');
to convert random number from float to integer:
rndmNum = Math.floor(rndmNum * 100 +1);
and do-while loop should be:
do {
var rndmNum = prompt('geuss a number');;
function guessNum(guess) {
if (guess<rndmNum){
alert ("Your guess is too low");
}else if (guess>rndmNum) {
alert("Your guess is too high");
}
}
i++;
}while(i<10) // number of guesses

check for alpha only colors using javascript

I am trying to check for alpha only charachters only on a webpage using javascript
Javascript
function AlphaOnly(x,fieldname) {
var valueToCheck=x.value;
var letters = /^[A-Za-z]+$/;
if(valueToCheck.length == 0) {
alert("Please Enter a " + fieldname);
x.focus();
return false;
}
else if(valuetoCheck.match(/[\W_]/)){
alert("Alpha only");
}
else if(letters.test(valuetocheck)) {
alert("its working");
}
}
It works if the field is empty but cant get it to work if its not alpha charachters entered
Also want to change the color of an element
function ChangeColor(x) {
x.style.backgroundColor="red";
}
I didnt put in the html as the functions are being called, they just wont do what they are suppose to.
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks
Rachael

The valueToCheck variable is not keeping consistent case, and that appears to be causing the problem here, because javascript's variable names are case-sensitive.
This fiddle shows a working example with nothing changed but the variable name fixed: http://jsfiddle.net/jt3RC/

How to get first text node of a string while containing bold and italic tags?

String(s) is dynamic
It is originated from onclick event when user clicks anywhere in dom
if string(s)'s first part that is:
"login<b>user</b>account"
is enclosed in some element like this :
"<div>login<b>user</b>account</div>",
then I can get it with this:
alert($(s).find('*').andSelf().not('b,i').not(':empty').first().html());
// result is : login<b>user</b>account
But how can i get the same result in this condition when it is not enclosed in any element .i.e. when it is not enclosed in any element?
I tried this below code which works fine when first part do not include any <b></b> but it only gives "login" when it does include these tags.
var s = $.trim('login<b>user</b> account<tbody> <tr> <td class="translated">Lorem ipsum dummy text</td></tr><tr><td class="translated">This is a new paragraph</td></tr><tr><td class="translated"><b>Email</b></td></tr><tr><td><i>This is yet another text</i></td> </tr></tbody>');
if(s.substring(0, s.indexOf('<')) != ''){
alert(s.substring(0, s.indexOf('<')));
}
Note:
Suggest a generic solution that is not specific for this above string only. It should work for both the cases when there is bold tags and when there ain't any.

So it's just a b or a i, heh?
A recursive function is always the way to go. And this time, it's probably the best way to go.
var s = function getEm(elem) {
var ret = ''
// TextNode? Great!
if (elem.nodeType === 3) {
ret += elem.nodeValue;
}
else if (elem.nodeType === 1 &&
(elem.nodeName === 'B' || elem.nodeName === 'I')) {
// Element? And it's a B or an I? Get his kids!
ret += getEm(elem.firstChild);
}
// Ain't nobody got time fo' empty stuff.
if (elem.nextSibling) {
ret += getEm(elem.nextSibling);
}
return ret;
}(elem);
Jsfiddle demonstrating this: http://jsfiddle.net/Ralt/TZKsP/
PS: Parsing HTML with regex or custom tokenizer is bad and shouldn't be done.

You're trying to retrieve all of the text up to the first element that's not a <b> or <i>, but this text could be wrapped in an element itself. This is SUPER tricky. I feel like there's a better way to implement whatever it is you're trying to accomplish, but here's a solution that works.
function initialText(s){
var test = s.match(/(<.+?>)?.*?<(?!(b|\/|i))/);
var match = test[0];
var prefixed_element = test[1];
// if the string was prefixed with an element tag
// remove it (ie '<div> blah blah blah')
if(prefixed_element) match = match.slice(prefixed_element.length);
// remove the matching < and return the string
return match.slice(0,-1);
}
You're lucky I found this problem interesting and challenging because, again, this is ridiculous.
You're welcome ;-)

Try this:
if (s.substring(0, s.indexOf('<')) != '') {
alert(s.substring(0, s.indexOf('<tbody>')));
}