Question

I’m trying to make a reference generator. People fills in some information, and then the generator sets up the text in the right way. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

    $('#ref-button1').click(function () {
    var authorname = $('#bookAuthor').val();
        if (authorname == "") {
             $('.error').show();
             return false;
         }
    var booktitle = $('#bookTitle').val();
        if (booktitle == "") {
             $('.error').show();
            return false;
         }
    var year = $('#bookYear').val();
        if (year == "") {
             $('.error').show();
            return false;
         }
    var place = $('#bookPlace').val();
        if (place == "") {
            $('.error').show();
            return false;
         }
    var publisher = $('#bookPublisher').val();
        if (publisher == "") {
             $('.error').show();
            return false;
         }
    var edition = $('#bookEdition').val();
    var page = $('#bookPage').val();
    var completeString1 = authorname + '&nbsp;' + '(' + year + '),' + '&nbsp;' + '<i>' + booktitle + '</i>' + ',&nbsp;' + edition + '&nbsp;ed.,&nbsp;' + place + ':&nbsp;' + publisher + ',&nbsp;' + page;

    $('.error').hide();
    $('#output').empty();
    $('#output').append(completeString1);
});

As you see, I have 5 variables that have to be filled out, and 2 that don’t. I create the entire string in completeString1, where I also put in the commas and so on. I know this is probably not the easiest way to do, but it is how I could do it. My problem now, is that my completeString1 will still contain and print “ed.,” even if I don’t fill out the variable.

So my question is: How can I leave out that bit of the variable, given that it is not filled out?

Answer 1

What I got is that you have problem with “edition” variable. So you need to change the way you assign the value to it:

var edition = $('#bookEdition').val() != "" ? ($('#bookEdition').val() + ' ed., ') : "";

And then, update completeString1 setting to:

var completeString1 = authorname + '&nbsp;' + '(' + year + '),' + '&nbsp;' + '<i>' + booktitle + '</i>' + ',&nbsp;' + edition + place + ':&nbsp;' + publisher + ',&nbsp;' + page;