truncating the book title with jquery and substring

Question

I am attempting to truncate a book title that is retrieved from my db to print on a bar code label. I can't truncate it from the query as I need to entire title to appear in a table on the same page. Here is what I have:

   $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "advanceProcess.php",
        dataType: "json",
        data: ({sourceID: $('#sourceID').val(), fromDate: $('#fromDate').val(), toDate: $('#toDate').val()}),
        success: function(data){
            if(data.isbn == null ){
                $("#acctRecords").append('<tr><td>No Records Found</td></tr>');
            }else{
                //append general data
                for(var x=0;x<data.isbn.length;x++)
                {
                    $("#acctRecords").append('<tr><td id="tableSKU">'+data.tempsku[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tableISBN">'+data.isbn[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tableTitle">'+data.title[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tableOrderid">'+data.orderId[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tableQtyBought">'+data.quantity[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tableCost">'+data.cost[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tabledateCreated">'+data.dateCreated[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tableWeight">'+data.weight[x]+
                    '</td><td id="tableCheckNumber">'+data.checkNumber[x]+'</td></tr>');
                }// end of for loop
                //refreshes the tablesorter plugin
                $("#acctRecords").trigger("update");
    //Print the bar codes
    sku = data.tempsku;
    title = data.title[x];
    //console.log(JSON.stringify(data));
    title = title.substr(0,16);
    var x=0;
    for (x=0;x<title.length;x++)
    {   
        first += '$("#'+indexGlobal+'").barcode("'+sku[x]+'", "codabar",{barHeight:40, fontSize:30, output:"bmp"});';
        second += '<div class="wrapper"><img src="../images/temp.jpg" /><div id="'+indexGlobal+
        '"></div><div class="fullSKU">&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp '+sku[x]+'</div><br/><div class="title">'+title[x]+
        '</div></div><br/><div class="page-break"></div>';
        indexGlobal++;
    }

Everything workd fine, except the title is too long. Currently I am getting an error that states: TypeError: title.substr is not a function. I have done some research on here and on Google and it seems that my code is correct. Any ideas?

EDIT: here are the results of the JSON:

"title":["Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology","The Ethical Chemist : Professionalism and Ethics in Science","Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion","Principles of Cancer Biology","AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame","In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences)"]

EDIT 2: I updated the script to show the entire ajax call and how the results are returned.

Substring on the query, just query the row twice. Make sense? Soo.... SELECT columnA title, substr(columnA,0,16) sku FROM DUAL — Roberto Navarro, Aug 01 '12 at 17:45
A quick way to find out the data type of `title` is to use `alert(typeof title);` — Jeremy Harris, Aug 01 '12 at 17:46
I did what @cillosis suggested and got object. does that mean I need to do title.object.substring(0,16)? — Jim, Aug 01 '12 at 17:49
No. You can't perform `substr()` on an object. Only on strings. What's the structure of `title`? — Matt, Aug 01 '12 at 17:52
To figure out the structure, you can convert it JSON and show us. You should be able to do something like `console.log(JSON.stringify(title));` or if using an older browser, implement the stringify function to be able to use it. And then show us the JSON. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3593046/jquery-json-to-string — Jeremy Harris, Aug 01 '12 at 17:53
Seems `title` is an array of titles, not just one. WHere is this coming from, and which one do you want? — gen_Eric, Aug 01 '12 at 17:58

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 01 '12 at 17:59

1

You are using multiple titles, in order to just get the first one from the array:

title = data.title[0];
title = title.substr(0,16);

If you want to build barcodes for each title:

for(x=0; x<data.title.length; x++)
{
   title = data.title[x];
   title = title.substr(0,16);

   // Build barcode

}

answered Aug 01 '12 at 17:59

Jeremy Harris

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I thought I couldn't use substr on an object. – Jim Aug 01 '12 at 18:03
2

You can't. You would be using it on a string. `data.title[0]` equals "Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology". Increasing the array index, goes to the next title in the array. – Jeremy Harris Aug 01 '12 at 18:04
After a little finagling of the rest of the code, this works perfectly. Thanks – Jim Aug 01 '12 at 18:31
No problem Jim. Glad to help. – Jeremy Harris Aug 01 '12 at 18:32

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 01 '12 at 18:01

//Your object [JSON]
var obj = {"title":["Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology","The Ethical     Chemist : Professionalism and Ethics in Science","Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion","Principles of Cancer Biology","AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame","In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences)"]}

//Result
obj.title[0] // Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology

truncating the book title with jquery and substring

2 Answers2