How do I split a string, breaking at a particular character?

Question

I have this string

\'john smith~123 Street~Apt 4~New York~NY~12345\'

Using JavaScript, what is the fastest way to parse this into

Answer 1

Even though this is not the simplest way, you could do this:

var addressString = "~john smith~123 Street~Apt 4~New York~NY~12345~",
    keys = "name address1 address2 city state zipcode".split(" "),
    address = {};

// clean up the string with the first replace
// "abuse" the second replace to map the keys to the matches
addressString.replace(/^~|~$/g).replace(/[^~]+/g, function(match){
    address[ keys.unshift() ] = match;
});

// address will contain the mapped result
address = {
    address1: "123 Street"
    address2: "Apt 4"
    city: "New York"
    name: "john smith"
    state: "NY"
    zipcode: "12345"
}

---

Update for ES2015, using destructuring

const [address1, address2, city, name, state, zipcode] = addressString.match(/[^~]+/g);

// The variables defined above now contain the appropriate information:

console.log(address1, address2, city, name, state, zipcode);
// -> john smith 123 Street Apt 4 New York NY 12345