How do I get my splat route matcher to work with my dictionary?
(NOTE: This is an Express question.)

Question

I'm tinkering with Express and creating a random app that repeats a word that's typed into the URL a certain number of times. For both the word and the number of times to repeat it, both of those are unknown until it's typed into the address bar. To accomplish this, I'm using patterns/route markers. It works flawlessly for any path I type, except when I type a path with an :animal that hasn't been defined (i.e. "blah.com/speak/wolverine"). When that happens, I get an undefined message instead of my catchall statement. I've have also tried (based off nothing but a hunch) app.get("/*/*", ...) with the hope that'd fix it. But no such luck. So: 
1) Why does it not use the splat route marker for an undefined dictionary item?
2) How do I get it to use the splat route marker for said item?
```javascript
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
app.get("/", function(req, res){
    res.send("Hi there, welcome to my assignment!");
});
app.get("/speak/:animal", function(req, res){
    var sounds = {
        pig: '"Oink"',
        cow: '"Moo"', 
        dog: '"Woof Woof!"',
        cat: '"I hate you, human!"',
        goldfish: '"I already forgot what you said."'
    }
    var animal = req.params.animal.toLowerCase();
    var sound = sounds[animal];
    res.send("The " + animal + " says " + sound);
});
app.get("/repeat/:message/:times", function(req, res){
   var times = Number(req.params.times);
   var message = req.params.message;
   var word = "";
   for (var i = 0; i < times; i++){
        word += " " + message;
        }
   res.send(word);
});
app.get("/*", function(req, res){
    res.send("Sorry, page not found... What are you doing with your life?");
});
app.listen(process.env.PORT, process.env.IP, function(){
    console.log("It's alive! It's aliiiiiiiiive!!");
});
```
NOTE: I'm using Cloud 9, hence the two arguments in the app.listen method of the code, hence the non-numerical port number.

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Michael Williams

Michael Williams

How do I get my splat route matcher to work with my dictionary? (NOTE: This is an Express question.)