Splitting Variables within Javascript web service

Question

So lets say I have a web service script that splits each variable like so...

var variables = source.u_variables.toString().split(';');

When the user enters their variables, if they end the variable with their own ";" will this cause any issues? I'm having a problem with one particular request that was sent over. When I look at the data, it seems the user put their own semicolon after their variables. Could this be an issue?

Example of the data:

Reason for Leaving: Sick
Doctors Note: Yes
Parents Notified: Yes

This was the data we received that was throwing us some issues:

Reason for Leaving: Sick; Flu; Cold;
Doctors Note: Yes
Parents Notified: Yes

Yes, definitely. its better for you to use a json array for your variables. — Nabil Ali, Oct 10 '17 at 16:43
Please share an example of the data returned from `source.u_variables` — colecmc, Oct 10 '17 at 17:07
@colecmc I edited the original post to show the usual data and then the data that has been giving us issues — AdamK, Oct 10 '17 at 17:14
Your example data is not valid js. We need to see exactly what returns if we run this line of code `source.u_variables` — colecmc, Oct 10 '17 at 17:46

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 10 '17 at 19:32

As others have said, yes this will cause issues. One way to handle this if it's a text payload like you posted would be to split on the new line character.

var variables = source.u_variables.toString().split('\n');

Then your variables would have a value of;

[
   'Reason for Leaving: Sick; Flu; Cold;',
   'Doctors Note: Yes',
   'Parents Notified: Yes'
]

It would be best as Nabil-Ali suggested and getting the data in a more consistent data structure, but sometimes, that just isn't possible.

Splitting Variables within Javascript web service

1 Answers1