Extract arguments from a string (quoted or not)

extractArgs.js

function extractArgs(str){
  var args = [], buff = '', idx  = -1, insideQuote = false, lgth = str.length;

  function next(){return str.charAt(++idx);}
  function peak(){return str.charAt(idx+1);}
  function resetState(){insideQuote = false;buff = '';}

  while(idx < lgth){
    var c = next();

    if(c === ' ' && !insideQuote){
      if(buff.length === 0){continue;}
      args.push(buff);
      resetState();
      continue;
    }

    if(c === '\\' && insideQuote){
      buff += next();
      continue;
    }

    if(c === "'" || c === '"'){
      if(!insideQuote){// enter
        insideQuote = true;
        continue;
      } else {// leave
        insideQuote = false;
        args.push(buff);
        resetState();
        continue;
      }
    }

    buff += c;
  }

  if(buff.length > 0){args.push(buff);}
  return args;
}

console.log(extractArgs("bonjour ça 'va' \"hello world\" \"c\\\"est ça !\" \"hey hey\""));
// [ 'bonjour', 'ça', 'va', 'hello world', 'c"est ça !', 'hey hey' ]

function args(s) {
  var q = [];
  s = s.replace(/(["'])(?:(?=(\\?))\2.)*?\1/g, function (m) {
    q.push(m.slice(1, -1));
    return "";
  });
  return s.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "").split(/\s+/).concat(q);
}

in case the order is not relevant ... what you wrote makes sense in C, not in JS, imho

the faster way is the use of regexp, here the tests http://jsperf.com/extract

for me and with chrome the fastest one is without regexp :)

In fact, I optimized my JavaScript code for speed ("v2") and as you can see it's faster than regexp http://jsperf.com/extract/4 while still holding the order of values (which was a requirement /cc @WebReflection)

up to 10% faster, and we are talking about 250.000 and more per second, against up to 80% more code ? As I have said, that is a good way in C, not in JS ... but of course if code size is not a concern, many regexps can be replaced by procedural code