findStringLength()

Step 1: Understanding the Problem

Before we dive into code, let's understand what the task is. The task is to write a function in JavaScript that returns the length of a string. This implies you will receive a string as an input and the output will be the number of characters in that string.

In JavaScript, strings are a sequence of characters. Each character in the string occupies a place, which we can refer to by its index. The string length is the count of these characters.

Let's start by creating a function, and accepting a single argument, our string.

function findStringLength(str){
    // code will go here
}

Step 2: Planning your solution

JavaScript has a built-in property for strings called length. This property returns the number of characters in a string.

Our solution will be to simply return the length property of the string received as an argument.

function findStringLength(str){
    return str.length;
}

Step 3: Testing your solution

It's always recommended to test your solution with different inputs to ensure that it behaves as expected. Here’s how you can do that:

console.log(findStringLength("Hello world!")); // returns 12
console.log(findStringLength("Javascript")); // returns 10
console.log(findStringLength("")); // returns 0

Step 4: Handle edge cases

What if the function receives something that is not a string? It will throw an error because the length property does not exist for data types other than string.

We can add a condition at the start of the function to check if the input received is of type string. If not, we can return a meaningful error message.

function findStringLength(str){
    if(typeof str !== 'string'){
        return "Input is not a string";
    }
    return str.length;
}

Conclusion

In conclusion, JavaScript provides a very straightforward way to find the length of a string using the length property. By using this property, we can return the string length directly. Always remember to also account for edge cases to ensure your function behaves as expected in different scenarios.

Here is the full code for our findStringLength function:

function findStringLength(str){
    if(typeof str !== 'string'){
        return "Input is not a string";
    }
    return str.length;
}