Question

I have a string like so:

(999.08) – (1025.67)

I need to be able to find the range between these two values as a floting point even if they are negative values so (-999.08) – (-1025.67) would also be in scope.

Assume i would need to use a regex and join the two in some sort of array?

Answer 1

From looking over everyone else’s answers, I can’t tell if any of them deal with negative numbers properly. I’ll throw this in the ring in case anyone needs it.

function parse(str) {

    // init to NaN
    var result = Number.NaN;

    // capture numbers in groups
    var pat = new RegExp(/\((-?\d+.?\d*)\)\s*-\s*\((-?\d+.?\d*)\)/);
    var match = str.match(pat);

    if (match) {
        // match[0] is whole match which is not useful
        var a = new Number(match[1]); // 1st group is 1st number
        var b = new Number(match[2]); // 2nd group is 2nd number
        result = Math.abs(a - b);
    }

    return result;
}

demo: http://jsbin.com/oseba4/edit