Question

I am looking for a function that will return true / false if the string in question is complied of any number of spaces. The common method of doing this is if (string == " ") but this only works for one space. I need a function that would resolve any number of spaces to a return statement.

example

if (string == " ")
if (string == "  ")
if (string == "   ")
if (string == "    ")
if (string == "     ")

What is the best way to do this?

Answer 1

You can use a regular expression: /^ +$/.test(string).

A regular expression is also good if you want to match any whitespace rather than just spaces (which is sometimes useful): /^\s+$/.test(string). The \s matches all whitespace characters like " " and "\t". So:

/^ +$/.test("     ");// True
/^ +$/.test("   \t\t");// False
/^\s+$/.test("      ");// True
/^\s+$/.test("    \t\t");// True

For reference, "\t" will look something like

"   "

(I think SO turned the tab into spaces, but that’s more or less what it would look like.)