Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

JavaScript JavaScript Loops, Arrays and Objects Tracking Data Using Objects The Student Record Search Challenge Solution

Posted by RG Coders
RG Coders
3,990 Points

My solution: The Student Record Search Challenge Solution

The solution accounts for blank entries, lower caps (e.g. jody === Jody === JODY ), and students who are not on the roster (e.g. 'Yoda'). However, the weakness is that if someone enters a blank (and hits enter), the program exits while messaging: "Please enter a student name." But they can't because the program exits. How can I handle blank entries so that the user is prompted to enter another name? I'm sure there's a simple solution (function?) that I'm not conceptualizing. Meanwhile, my solution follows below with a small assist to Josh C. who helped me understand a small part I was getting wrong.

var message = '';
var student;
var search;

function print(message) {
  var outputDiv = document.getElementById('output');
  outputDiv.innerHTML = message;
}

function getStudentReport( student ) {
  var report = '<h2>Student: ' + student.name + '</h2>';
  report += '<p>Track: ' + student.track + '</p>';
  report += '<p>Points: ' + student.points + '</p>';
  report += '<p>Achievements: ' + student.achievements + '</p>';
  return report;
}

while (true) {
  search = prompt('Search student records: type a name [Jody] (or type "quit" to end)');
  if (search === null || search.toLowerCase() === 'quit') {
    break;
  } else if (search === "") {
    document.write("Please enter a name.")
    break;
  }
  for (var i = 0; i < students.length; i += 1) {
    student = students[i];
    if ( student.name.toLowerCase() === search.toLowerCase() ) {
      message += getStudentReport( student );
      print(message);
     } 
   }
document.write("There is no student named " + search + ".");
  break;
}

2 Answers

Tyler Haas
Tyler Haas
20,623 Points
Tyler Haas
Tyler Haas
20,623 Points

you can simply use a continue statement in place of the break for the else if block. You would also want to move the search = prompt line outside the while block so that it only gets run once.

RG Coders
RG Coders
3,990 Points
RG Coders
RG Coders
3,990 Points

Thanks, Tyler.