I want to replace some characters in a string with a "*", in the following way:
Given N, leave the first N characters as-is, but mask the next N characters with "*", then leave the next N characters unchanged, ...etc, alternating every N characters in the string.
I am able to mask every alternating character with "*" (the case where N is 1):
let str = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
for (let i =0; i<str.length; i +=2){
str = str.substring(0, i) + '*' + str.substring(i + 1);
}
console.log(str)Output:
"*b*d*f*h*j*l*n*p*r*t*v*x*z"
But I don't know how to perform the mask with different values for N.
Example:
let string = "9876543210"
N = 1; Output: 9*7*5*3*1*
N = 2; Output: 98**54**10
N = 3; Output: 987***321*
What is the best way to achieve this without regular expressions?
You could use Array.from to map each character to either "*" or the unchanged character, depending on the index. If the integer division of the index by n is odd, it should be "*". Finally turn that array back to string with join:
function mask(s, n) {
return Array.from(s, (ch, i) => Math.floor(i / n) % 2 ? "*" : ch).join("");
}
let string = "9876543210";
console.log(mask(string, 1));
console.log(mask(string, 2));
console.log(mask(string, 3));This code should work:
function stars(str, n = 1) {
const parts = str.split('')
let num = n
let printStars = false
return parts.map((letter) => {
if (num > 0 && !printStars) {
num -= 1
return letter
}
printStars = true
num += 1
if (num === n) {
printStars = false
}
return '*'
}).join('')
}
console.log(stars('14124123123'), 1)
console.log(stars('14124123123', 2), 2)
console.log(stars('14124123123', 3), 3)
console.log(stars('14124123123', 5), 5)
console.log(stars(''))Cheers
This requires you to use the current mask as an argument and build your code upon it.
I also edited the function to allow other characters than the "*"
const number = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzzz';
for(let mask = 1; mask <= 9; mask++){
console.log("Current mask:", mask, " Value: ",applyMask(number, mask));
}
function applyMask(data, mask, defaultMask = '*'){
// start i with the value of mask as we allow the first "n" characters to appear
let i;
let str = data;
for(i = mask; i < data.length ; i+=mask*2){
// I used the same substring method you used the diff is that i used the mask to get the next shown values
// HERE
str = str.substring(0, i) + defaultMask.repeat(mask) + str.substring(i + mask);
}
// this is to trim the string if any extra "defaultMask" were found
// this is to handle the not full size of the mask input at the end of the string
return str.slice(0, data.length)
}