How do you get the length of a string?

Unicode, why you do this?

Unicode and JavaScript

All the unicodery (yeah, I made that up) makes counting characters kinda tricky. Here's how you do it:

const uniLen = s => [...s].length;
console.log(uniLen("𠮷𠮷")); // Not-So-UniLength: kudos to spread operator. Outputs: 2
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When efficiency wins

The spread operator takes up processing power (Yeah, it gets tired too, you know). So for ASCII strings, just go old school:

let length = "Your string here".length; // Back to basics. Boring, but quick.
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jQuery - A love story

Substring lengths in jQuery

With jQuery around, everything is easier, even getting a peek at string's length:

let textLength = $('#selector').text().length; // I see your length, text string! 🕶️
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Input value string length

Input values are a bit sly, but we can tackle that too:

let inputLength = $('#selector').val().length; // I *value* your length, input string! 😉
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Make sure to pay attention to your selectors. Avoid selection blunders for accurate results.

Watch out for the curveballs

Spaces & Newlines are cheeky

.length counts spaces and newlines too. Use trim() to weed them out:

let trimmedLength = " You cheeky string\n".trim().length; // Can't fool me with those spaces and newlines. Ha!
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Empty & null strings - The Nullity Bunch

.length will cozy up to 0 if the string's empty. And if you dare call .length of null or undefined, it will throw a TypeError tantrum.

Some pearls of wisdom

Embrace native JS

When it comes to getting a string's length, jQuery is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Native JavaScript .length is less verbose, more efficient.

Alert: Avoid getting too alert()

Using alert() to display string length is fine for quick debugging, but it's better to log to console or update DOM elements for user feedback.