Question

Say in this context:

String.prototype.times = function(count) {
    return count < 1 ? '' : new Array(count + 1).join(this);
}

"hello!".times(3); //"hello!hello!hello!";
"please...".times(6); //"please...please...please...please...please...please..."

How does it add on to the new statement 3 times? I’m also having some confusion in understanding the return statement. Please tell me if I am understanding this correctly:

(if count < 1){
    return ''
} else {
    return new Array(count + 1).join(this) //This I don't understand.

Thank you.

Answer 1

It makes a new array of given length, say 7. Then you join all those empty items with a string, which ends up repeating that string 6 times.

Normally:

[1,2,3].join("|") === "1|2|3"

Then with an array of length 4:

new Array(4).join("|") === "|||"

this inside a String.prototype method refers to the string object the function was called as a method on:

 "hello".bold(); //this would refer to a string object containing "hello" inside bold()