Abbreviate names with javascript

Question

Hello I am wanting to write a function to reduce names by passing a limit, for example: limit 10 to the name: Sara Flávia Cristina to Sara F. C.

I wrote the code below, but I wonder if there’s a simpler way to do that.

Thank you.

let name = "Sabrina Boing Moreira";
let limit = 13;
verifyName(name, limit);

function verifyName(name, limit) {
  let offLimit = isOffLimit(name, limit);

  if(offLimit > 0) {
    let namesList = splitName(name);
    let reducedName = reduceName(namesList, limit, offLimit);
    print(reducedName);
  }
}

function isOffLimit(name, limit) {
  if(name.length >= limit) {
    return limit - name.length;
  } 
}

function splitName(name, limit) {
  return name.split(" ", limit);
}

function reduceName(namesList, limit, offLimit) {
  let name;
  let reduceOfLimit = limit;

  for (var i = 0; i < namesList.length; i++) {   
    name = countName(namesList[i]);
    if(reduceOfLimit != 0) {
      if(name.length + 1 == offLimit) {
        namesList[i].slice(0, offLimit);
        namesList[i] + ".";
        reduceOfLimit = 0;
      }
    } else {
      break
    }
  }
}

function countName(name) {
  return name.length;
}

function print(string) {
  console.log(string);
}
´´´ 

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, this must be it.

Follows the code:

console.log(abridgedControl('Sabrina Boing Moreira', 13)); //Sabrina B. M.

function abridgedControl(fullName, limit) {
    if (fullName.length > limit) {
        return toAbridged(fullName);
    }
    return fullName;
}


function toAbridged(fullName) { 
    const token = '.';
    const separator = ' ';
    const names = removePrepositions(fullName).split(separator);
    const firstName = names[0];
    let surnames = '';
    names
        .filter((name, index) => index)
        .map(name => surnames += `${separator}${name.charAt()}${token}`);
    return `${firstName}${surnames.toUpperCase()}`;
}

function removePrepositions(fullName) {
    return fullName.replace(/\ dos|\ das|\ dos|\ das|\ de|\ d\'/gi, '');
}

I took the liberty of removing the best-known prepositions.

Answer 2

This is more complex than it looks and Javascript is not very good at this because it is difficult to detect capital letters. Letters like Ì, Ó, Å are capital letters but a regex with A-Z don’t catch them. Actually the list of possibilities is giant. Take a look to this other question who has a similar problem.

Having said that, and considering only a few more common large letters, you could do so:

const testes = [
  "António de Sousa",
  "Maria da Conceição d 'Espada",
  "Johan Öström",
  "Joana Ìlhavo"
];

function abreviar(str) {
  const [nome, ...sobrenomes] = str.split(' ');

  const abreviaturas = sobrenomes.reduce((arr, str) => {
    const letraGrande = str.match(/[A-ZÖÄÅÀÁÂÃÌÍÒÓÉÊÚ]/);
    if (!letraGrande) return arr;
    return arr.concat(`${letraGrande[0]}.`);
  }, []);

  return [nome, ...abreviaturas].join(' ');
}

testes.forEach((teste, i) => {
  console.log(i, '>', abreviar(teste));
});