Javascript: Convert textarea into an array

Question

How would you go about breaking up a textarea value into an array, based on the end of line separation? Use of jQuery is cool by me...

Ivatts

Answer 1

This should work (tested in Firefox and Google Chrome):

var arrayOfLines = $('#textAreaID').val().split('\n');

Vanover

It should be $('#textArea').val().split('\n'), the jQuery object doesn't have a value property. – Turki

@CMS - or even $('#textArea')[0].value.split('\n') :) – Cauley

@CMS: Oops. Thanks for noting. – Vanover

Answer 2

Cross-platform way:

var area = document.getElementById("area");             
var lines = area.value.replace(/\r\n/g,"\n").split("\n");

Lucre

Answer 3

var stringArray = document.getElementById('textarea').value.split('\n');

He

Answer 4

I like the "cross-platform way" answer best (https://mcmap.net/q/403844/-javascript-convert-textarea-into-an-array) as I've grappled with input from a Mac in the past. Nevertheless I think most of the existing answers could benefit from an additional step.

Specifically, what if some lines are empty? The following will filter out such lines so that we wind up with a "compact" array rather than a "sparse" one (or at least, rather than one with elements containing no values)

var area = document.getElementById("area");             
var lines = area.value.replace(/\r\n/g,"\n").split("\n").filter(line => line);

Joung

To clarify, is this using the fact that an empty string is false-y in JavaScript? – Faso

@Faso Precisely – Joung

Answer 5

You could try this function :

function textToArray(){
  var someArray = [];    
  var nameList = $("#txtArea").val();

  $.each(nameList.split(/\n/), function (i, name) {     

      // empty string check
      if(name != ""){

          someArray.push(name);

      }        
});

taken from : CONVERT TEXTAREA CONTENT TO AN ARRAY USING JQUERY

Beeck

Answer 6

This method worked well:

var textArea = document.getElementById("textAreaId");
var arrayFromTextArea = textArea.value.split(String.fromCharCode(10));

Plasmagel