Question

I have a variable string in my JavaScript code containing a comma delimited list of words and or phrases, for example:

String 1 : “abc, def hij, klm”

String 2 : “abc, def”

I want to insert the word ‘and’ after the last comma in the string to get

String 1 : “abc, def hij, and klm”

String 2 : “abc, and def”

I put together the following code:

// replace the last comma in the list with  ", and"  
var regEx1 = new RegExp(",(?=[A-z ]*$)" )      
var commaDelimList = commaDelimList.replace(regEx1, ", and ");

The problem is that it does not work if the comma delimited string has only two items separated by one comma.

So the results of the above example are

String 1 : ”abc, def hij, and klm”

String 2 : “abc, def”

Why is the RegExp not working and what can I use to get the result I want?

Answer 1

Not sure a regex was the right way to go there…

Why not use LastIndexOf and replace that with your string?