Is it possible to have a input field where user can input the array and the function which it passes the value treats it as an array? To be clear, is this possible using javascript and HTML?

<input....of some type....>

function (from input as a form of array){

calculation
}

I would like to have an input field where I can input something like [1,2,3,4..] or [(1,2),(2,3)...] and pass that to the function without any further manipulation, hoping that it will treat the array as array not as 'text'. I think I can use eval but I don't want to trust the user.

Is it possible to have a input field where user can input the array and the function which it passes the value treats it as an array? To be clear, is this possible using javascript and HTML?

<input....of some type....>

function (from input as a form of array){

calculation
}

I would like to have an input field where I can input something like [1,2,3,4..] or [(1,2),(2,3)...] and pass that to the function without any further manipulation, hoping that it will treat the array as array not as 'text'. I think I can use eval but I don't want to trust the user.

• javascript

Share Follow edited Jun 20, 2013 at 14:14 Joshua Taylor 86k99 gold badges162162 silver badges364364 bronze badges asked Jun 20, 2013 at 14:07 Jack_of_All_TradesJack_of_All_Trades 11.5k2020 gold badges6464 silver badges9595 bronze badges 4

• 1 What would [(1, 2), (2, 3)] end up creating exactly? – Andrew Whitaker Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:09
• @AndrewWhitaker:it is something from python I cannot forget.nothing, I know in javascript it creates...just used it for illustration. – Jack_of_All_Trades Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:10
• That won't do what you expect it to in JavaScript. You could use JSON.parse for the simple array though. – Andrew Whitaker Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:12
• JSON.parse would help, or if that is not available, either a simple split(",") and a mapping to turn strings into numbers or you need to use a regular expression to get multi-dimensional arrays. – epascarello Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:12

Add a ment  | 

2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 4

JSON.parse() will help out here

Support is IE8+

HTML:

<input type="text" id="t1" value="[1,2,3,4,5,6]"/>
<input type="text" id="t2" value="[[1,2],[3,4],[5,6]]"/>

JavaScript:

var a1 = JSON.parse(document.getElementById("t1").value);
var a2 = JSON.parse(document.getElementById("t2").value);
console.log(a1);
console.log(a2);

Fiddle

http://jsfiddle/NNcg7/

You can create an array from the text input if the data is entered with a standard delimiter. Meaning, if the user inputs 1,2,3,4 into the text field, you can create an array in Javascript using the split method.

var myInputValue = document.getElementById(yourElementId); //value will be "1,2,3,4"
var myArray = myInputValue.split(","); //value will be [1,2,3,4]