split() hacks & RegExp

Actionscript:
  1. var path:String = "section/home.swf";
  2.  
  3. var deepLinkValue:String = path.split("/")[1].split(".swf")[0];
  4.  
  5. trace(deepLinkValue);
  6. /*outputs:
  7. home
  8. */

As a primarily self taught programmer there was a time when I didn't know what a regular expression was. There was also a time when ActionScript didn't have them (you had to use a library). Sometimes when I'm in a rush I still do weird things like the above instead of regular expressions... pretty nasty I know.

Here are two different regular expressions that do the same thing:

Actionscript:
  1. var path = "section/home.swf"
  2.  
  3. trace(path.match(/\w+(?=\.)/))
  4. /*outputs:
  5. home
  6. */
  7.  
  8. trace(path.replace(/.+\/|\..+/g, ""))
  9. /* also outputs:
  10. home
  11. */

Actually, I'd be curious to see other regular expressions that only return one value (not an array) that achieve this same thing... feel free to post of a comment if you can think of one...

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