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JavaScript JavaScript Basics Working with Strings Combine and Manipulate Strings

Posted by Micheal Jones
Micheal Jones
3,972 Points

Combine and Manipulate strings

I dont know what im doing wrong here>

app.js 
let firstName="Micheal";
let lastName="Jones";
let role = 'developer';
var msg="firstName "+"lastName "+"role.";

1 Answer

Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,817 Points
Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,817 Points

Hi Micheal,

When you surround a value in quotes you're signifying that it's a string. Right now you've set your msg variable equal to the string "firstName lastName role.", when you want it to read "Micheal Jones: developer".

Remove the quotes and you can access the variables. Here's an example:

let firstName = "Micheal";
let lastName = "Jones";
let role = "developer";
var msg = firstName + " " + lastName;
// msg is now "Micheal Jones"

Notice that I've added a space in quotes between the two variables. If I didn't, msg would read "MichealJones".

You can also use backticks to make a template literal instead:

let firstName = "Micheal";
let lastName = "Jones";
let role = "developer";
var msg = `${firstName} ${lastName}`;
// msg is now "Micheal Jones"

With this in mind, take another look at the challenge prompt. It wants you to make a string that looks exactly like "Micheal Jones: developer". Whichever method you go with you need to make sure that you match the spacing and punctuation exactly.

Micheal Jones
Micheal Jones
3,972 Points

I dont know if I fully understand this.

let firstName = "Micheal"; let lastName = "Jones"; let role = "developer"; var msg = firstName + " " + lastName;

What would go inside the parentheses? wouldn't role go inside of them? role would also be placed at the end of my last name right. I wrote it down the way you have have it here and its still coming up wrong.

Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,817 Points
Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,817 Points

I only gave you a partial answer to demonstrate how you can construct the real answer by yourself. You still need to add a colon, a space, and the variable role to the end.

About what goes inside the quotes here:

var msg = firstName + " " + lastName;

Anything inside the quotes is considered a string. In this case I have a single space inside the quotes. We set the variables to strings in the lines above, so when they are accessed this line adds 3 strings together:

var msg = firstName + " " + lastName; 
// Variables are accessed, so they're replaced with their values and this happens:
        "Micheal" + " " + "Jones"
// Strings are concatenated (added together), which becomes:
        "Micheal Jones"

role should not be placed inside quotes when setting your msg variable because then it would literally read "role" and wouldn't be replaced by the string you set, "developer".

You're correct that it should be added after the lastName variable. You'll also want to put a colon and space in quotes between lastname and role so that you match the punctuation that the challenge is looking for.

It may be worth reviewing these videos to go over the concepts of variables, strings, and concatenation:

I hope this helps! Let me know if you get stuck.