countWords()

Step 1: Function Signature

The first step in creating our function is to define its signature. This means we need to decide what inputs it accepts and what output it will produce. Since we are writing a function to count the words in some text, it will need to take a string as its parameter. We'll call our function countWords and the parameter text.

function countWords(text) {
    
}

Step 2: Splitting the Text into Words

Once we have our function set up to take text as an input, the next step is to split that text into words. We can do this using JavaScript's split method. This method splits a string into an array of substrings based on a specified separator. In our case, the separator will be a space character (" "), which will mean our text gets split into words.

function countWords(text) {
    let words = text.split(" ");
}

Step 3: Counting the Words

Now that we have an array of words, we need to count them to get our final result. There are many ways to count items in an array in JavaScript, but one of the easiest methods is to simply use the length property that all arrays have. So, we'll just return the length of our words array.

function countWords(text) {
    let words = text.split(" ");
    return words.length;
}

Step 4: Handling Edge Cases

The above code will work well for most cases, but we might run into issues if our text has multiple spaces in a row, or if it starts or ends with a space. To handle these potential problems, we should trim any leading or trailing spaces from our text before splitting it, and then split on one or more spaces instead of just a single space. We can achieve this by using Regular Expressions (RegEx) in our split method.

function countWords(text) {
    let words = text.trim().split(/\s+/);
    return words.length;
}

Step 5: Testing the Function

Now that we have a complete function, the final step is just to test out the function with some real inputs to make sure it works as expected.

console.log(countWords("Hello world")); // Output: 2
console.log(countWords("   This is a test ")); // Output: 4
console.log(countWords("OneWord")); // Output: 1

In conclusion, this is how we can make a countWords function in JavaScript. Remember to consider edge cases in your functions to make them reliable and robust. Happy coding!