How to convert a string to an array in JavaScript
Łukasz Holeczek
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Converting strings to arrays is fundamental for text processing, character manipulation, word analysis, and implementing features like text parsing or search tokenization in JavaScript applications.
With over 25 years of experience in software development and as the creator of CoreUI, I’ve implemented string-to-array conversion in components like tag inputs, search functionality, and text processors where breaking down strings into manageable pieces enhances data manipulation capabilities.
From my extensive expertise, the most versatile and widely used solution is the split() method, which allows flexible conversion based on different separators.
This approach is powerful, intuitive, and handles various conversion scenarios from individual characters to word separation.
Use the split() method to convert a string into an array of characters or elements.
const text = 'hello world'
const characters = text.split('')
// Result: ['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', ' ', 'w', 'o', 'r', 'l', 'd']
The split() method divides a string into an array based on the specified separator. Using an empty string '' as the separator splits the string into individual characters, including spaces and punctuation. In this example, 'hello world'.split('') creates an array with each character as a separate element. To split by words instead, use text.split(' ') which would produce ['hello', 'world']. You can also split by other separators like commas, periods, or any character pattern.
Best Practice Note:
This is the same approach we use in CoreUI components for processing user input, creating tag systems, and implementing text analysis features across our component library.
For Unicode-safe character splitting, use Array.from(text) or [...text] spread operator to properly handle emojis and special characters. To split by multiple separators, use regex: text.split(/[\s,]+/) splits by spaces or commas. The split() method is universally supported and provides the most control over string-to-array conversion.
