The .length thing in Javascript

[pcbrainbuster]

Well hello,

I have seen a few properties in my time for javascript which i do not completely understand how to use, in this case it would be .length.

On the web I have seen this property being used to disply animated text which goes up by one (an example can be found at http://www.w3schools.com/dhtml/tryit...tml_typewriter)

Well so can anyone explain how to properly use .length - and it's uses.

Thanks

[Blake]

It gives you the number of elements in an array, or the number of characters in a string.

If x is a string or array, x.length will give you its length.

[pcbrainbuster]

Yup, the basics -

I have been through them before and I have seen some great animations with use of that, any idea on how to do them or any intermediate examples

By the way GREAT MILITARY SITE !!!! ROCK ON !!!

[Twey]

It's quite rare to see a green-on-black design carried out in such a way that it doesn't look like it's been designed by some script kiddy who's spent way too long watching Matrix reruns. Congratulations.

[pcbrainbuster]

Uhhh, the thing is the reason that the page doesn't look like it was created by a script kiddy is because it wasn't, it was created by a script adulty

So getting back to .length

[Twey]

Well, the length property has been explained. There's not really much more to it.

the reason that the page doesn't look like it was created by a script kiddy is because it wasn't, it was created by a script adulty

It's still rather difficult to produce a green-on-black page that looks decent. Try it some time.

[pcbrainbuster]

No no no no, you got it all wrong I was just joking about the green black thing

But about the length thing is that i have seen certain animation that use the .length property but i simply do not understand what the .length part does as it's job...

[Twey]

maxlength=message.length+1

Set maxlength to be equal to the length of the message plus one.

[pcbrainbuster]

Yah that's it !!!
But may I have a VERY VERY simple animation script wriiten by you to study ?
But not to advanced I will simply work on yours until I understand it and make my own from there

[jscheuer1]

The length property is so simple, it can be hard to understand it at first, especially if you are looking for some deep meaning. It has no deep or even complex meaning. Here is a string:

"I'm a string"

It has 12 characters (including spaces and punctuation). It's length is 12. Try this:

<script type="text/javascript">
alert ("I'm a string".length)
</script>

Length can apply to other things besides strings. For the most part it is only used with strings and arrays. Here is an array:

["I'm", "an", "array"]

It has three items. Its length is three:

<script type="text/javascript">
alert (["I'm", "an", "array"].length)
</script>

The length property is used in javascript to determine how long things are so other operations can be carried out - say once for each unit of length, or on/for each item that represents a unit of length. It's that simple.