How to Convert a String into an Array in JavaScript

In JavaScript, you can use the built-in split() method to split a string into an array of substrings based on a specified delimiter:

string.split(separator, limit)

Parameters

Parameter	Description
separator	Optional. Specifies the character(s) or regular expression used to split the string. The default value is an empty string (“”).
limit	Optional. Specifies the maximum number of splits to be made.

Examples

Split a string with commas and spaces

The code:

const colors = "red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, pink"

const colorArray = colors.split(", ")
console.log(colorArray)

Output:

[
  'red',    'green',
  'blue',   'yellow',
  'orange', 'purple',
  'pink'
]

Using split() with the limit parameter

The code:

let str = "apple,banana,slingacademy.com";
let arr = str.split(",", 2);
console.log(arr);

Output:

["apple", "banana"]

In the example above, the split() method is used with a limit parameter of 2, which splits the string into an array of 2 substrings.

Using the split() method with regular expressions

You can use regular expressions to create complex and complicated splitting patterns, such as splitting a string based on any whitespace character (spaces, tabs, line breaks):

let str = "Welcome to slingacademy.com. This website is dedicated to learning JavaScript. We have a lot of JavaScript tutorials for beginners and advanced learners. We also have a lot of JavaScript projects for you to practice your JavaScript skills.";

let arr = str.split(/\s+/);
console.log(arr);

Output:

[
  'Welcome',     'to',         'slingacademy.com.',
  'This',        'website',    'is',
  'dedicated',   'to',         'learning',
  'JavaScript.', 'We',         'have',
  'a',           'lot',        'of',
  'JavaScript',  'tutorials',  'for',
  'beginners',   'and',        'advanced',
  'learners.',   'We',         'also',
  'have',        'a',          'lot',
  'of',          'JavaScript', 'projects',
  'for',         'you',        'to',
  'practice',    'your',       'JavaScript',
  'skills.'
]

Alternatives

Besides the split() method, there are some other solutions for splitting a string into an array. However, they all have limitations and only fit some special use cases.

Using the spread operator

Example:

let str = "hello";
let arr = [...str];
console.log(arr);

Output:

["h", "e", "l", "l", "o"]

Using Array.from()

Example:

let str = "hello";
let arr = Array.from(str);
console.log(arr);

Output:

["h", "e", "l", "l", "o"]

I hope this helps! Leave a comment if you have any more questions.