Add elements to array

TSEROOGY · February 16th, 2004, 11:00 AM

As rudimentary as this is, it's got me stumped.

Using the Prompt method, a user is asked to repond to a question. Clicking OK, I want his answer to be added and stored in an array. Later, each element of the array is written out to a document.

While I can handle the array and writing out the elements of the array, I can seem to keep adding an element to an array. Everytime I run the function for adding an item, it starts over.

Does is the life of the array only as long as it takes to run the routine? Do I need to store the array in a global variable to retain the information added to the routine?

Any suggestions would be a help.

sabertec2

Snib · February 16th, 2004, 11:13 AM

Try something like this:

Code:

var answers = new Array();
function question(num)
{
     if(num==1)answers[1] = prompt("What is the answer?"," ");
     else if(num==2)answers[2] = prompt("What is the answer?"," ");
     else if(num==3)answers[3] = prompt("What is the answer?"," ");
}

...
...

<a href="#" onclick="question(1)">Q1</a>
<a href="#" onclick="question(2)">Q2</a>
<a href="#" onclick="question(3)">Q3</a>

To add to an array:

Code:

your_array[your_array.length] = "Hi!";

HTH,

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---Snib---
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nikolai · February 16th, 2004, 03:35 PM

This is a kind of silly use of if/else:

Quote:

quote:
function question(num)
{
     if(num==1)answers[1] = prompt("What is the answer?"," ");
     else if(num==2)answers[2] = prompt("What is the answer?"," ");
     else if(num==3)answers[3] = prompt("What is the answer?"," ");
}

Why not just do this and spare yourself the inefficiency of the if/else comparison?

function question(num)
{
answers[num] = prompt("What is the answer?"," ");
}

Take care,

Nik
http://www.bigaction.org/

Snib · February 17th, 2004, 02:24 PM

Didn't think of that, Nik.

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---Snib---
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nikolai · February 17th, 2004, 03:03 PM

=) Hey, I've done stuff like that more times than I care to admit. I remember one function I wrote where the last few lines were:

   if (var == true)
   {
       return true;
   }
   else
   {
       return false;
   }

When this should've sufficed:

   return var;

That was after about a 24-hour coding marathon I pulled several years ago.

Take care,

Nik
http://www.bigaction.org/

TSEROOGY · February 22nd, 2004, 03:16 PM

Thanks, all.

I've got it now. One problem I did have, however, was that the array was set to null or 0 everytime the function was called. Apparently, this was because I created the array within the function.

As the array is supposed to build as the user makes each selection, I realized from your examples that I had to place the array outside of the function and ended up making it a global variable.

Thank you,
sabertec2