For any serious enterprise web apps, there are a handful of default Javascript functions I like to include in order to make my life easier in the long run.

Today, I present some handy extensions to the String object.

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String.prototype.trim = function () {
	return this.replace(/(^\s+)|(\s+$)/, '');
}
String.prototype.addTrailingSlash = function () {
	return ('/' != this.charAt(this.length - 1)) ? this.toString() + '/' : this.toString();
}
String.prototype.left = function (n) {
	if (n <= 0) return "";
	else if (n > String(this).length) return this;
	else return String(this).substring(0,n);
}
String.prototype.right = function (n){
    if (n <= 0) return "";
    else if (n > String(this).length) return str;
    else {
       var iLen = String(this).length;
       return String(this).substring(iLen, iLen - n);
    }
}

The .trim() method is generally quite useful everywhere where text input is accepted.

The .addTrailingSlash() method is a nice way to help guarantee that you get valid paths and URLs when variables are involved.

The other two methods — .left() and .right() — are merely a conveniece at times, and I actually don’t find myself using them much as I prefer proper use of the .substring() method.