«

Hello, this sentence is from the Ajax.Request.prototype function in
prototype.js:

this.url += (this.url.match(/\?/) ? '&' : '?') + parameters;

I understand what it does but I don't know how does "/\?/" work. Would
it be the same as "this.url.match('?')" ?

- What is each slash for?
- Is "\?" an escape character?

Can anybody help me?

Carlos from Barcelona.

wrote:
> Hello, this sentence is from the Ajax.Request.prototype function in
> prototype.js:
>
> this.url += (this.url.match(/\?/) ? '&' : '?') + parameters;
>
> I understand what it does but I don't know how does "/\?/" work. Would
> it be the same as "this.url.match('?')" ?
>
> - What is each slash for?
> - Is "\?" an escape character?
>
> Can anybody help me?
>
> Carlos from Barcelona.
>

Hi Carlos

Its a regular expression, broken down

/ is the start of the expression

\? match a question mark anywhere in the url

/ is the end of the expresssion.

the \ is an escape character because ? on its own means something
else entirely.

Regular expressions are a very powerful tool for matching patterns
in strings. There is plenty of info on the web about them and
one here.

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/exp...s-javascript/2

HTH

Chris

said the following on 4/19/2006 7:16 AM:
> Hello, this sentence is from the Ajax.Request.prototype function in
> prototype.js:

It's a line of code, not a sentence. But another reason why I don't use
prototype.js

> this.url += (this.url.match(/\?/) ? '&' : '?') + parameters;
>
> I understand what it does but I don't know how does "/\?/" work. Would
> it be the same as "this.url.match('?')" ?

Close. It uses the ternary operator to see if it has a ? in the url and
then appends parameters accordingly.

> - What is each slash for?

It is part of the Regular Expression that match is using.

> - Is "\?" an escape character?

Yes.

--
Randy
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly
Javascript Best Practices - http://www.JavascriptToolbox.com/bestpractices/