Question

How, in Javascript, can I cast a string as an array in the same way that PHP (array) does.

//PHP
$array = (array)"string"

Basically I have a variable that can be an array or a string and, if a string, I want to make it an array using an inline command.

Answer 1

JavaScript is a prototyping language and does not have a type casting system.

One solution would be to check if your variable is a string and convert it into an array. For example :

if (typeof someVariable === 'string') someVariable = [someVariable];

In PHP, if you do a check on a string, like (ex: $array = 'string';) :

$array = (array) $array;  // ex: "string" becomes array("string")

The JavaScript equivalent will be

arr = typeof arr === 'string' ? [arr] : arr;

If your variable arr is not necessarily a string, you may use instanceof (edit: or Array.isArray) :

arr = arr instanceof Array ? arr : [arr];
arr = Array.isArray(arr) ? arr : [arr];