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JavaScript Regular Expressions in JavaScript Validating a Form Validating a Username

Hamzah Iqbal
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Hamzah Iqbal
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 11,145 Points

Not understanding passing in function parameters

Im not getting that when creating the function we have to define the parameter of the function. Then in the function we have to use:

function isValidUsername(username) {

return /[a-z]+/.test(username) //What is being passed into the username? Its not defined anywhere

3 Answers

Victor Stanciu
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Victor Stanciu
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 11,196 Points

I think this might help you. I only took the lines of code relevant to your question.

function isValidUsername(username) {
  return /^[a-z]+$/.test(username);
}

function createListener(validator) {
  return e => {
    const text = e.target.value;
    const valid = validator(text);
    const showTip = text !== "" && !valid;
    const tooltip = e.target.nextElementSibling;
    showOrHideTip(showTip, tooltip);
  };
}

usernameInput.addEventListener("input", createListener(isValidUsername));

This event listener created on the usernameInput calls the function createListener with isValidUsername as an argument. In createListener function, this argument is replaced by validator parameter, so when you call validator(text) you acctually call isValidUsername(text) (text here is the argument), where text is actually what the user writes. Now look where isValidUsername is declared. Replace the parameter username with the argument text, and there you go. username is actually the text that the user inputs in the username field.

Hope this makes sense.

Maybe someone can reformulate this better.

karan Badhwar
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karan Badhwar
Web Development Techdegree Graduate 18,135 Points

Hi Victor Stanciu, Thanks for the explanation, I helped, but I want to clarify again. So the function isValidUsername(username) gets called at this line right

   const valid = validator(text);

and then returns a boolean value. Is my understanding of this right?

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

See if this helps:

function isValidUsername(username) {  // <-- the "username" parameter is defined here

Then, elsewhere in the program, this function will be called, perhaps something like this:

var isOK = isValidUsername(possibleName);  // check what's in "possibleName" for validity

So in this case, when the function runs, whatever was in "possibleName" will now be in "username". This allows the code in the function to be written without knowing what the function will be used on later. Plus, it could get used more than once on different things, but it will still do the same job each time.

Hamzah Iqbal
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Hamzah Iqbal
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 11,145 Points

I get it. But the username gets passed in as a parameter. But it doesn’t even exist yet. I would understand with your example

var isOK = isValidUsername(possibleName) But nothing is being passed that is being tested so to say.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

In this example, the contents of "possibleName" is what is being passed. It would contain a string to be tested.