<h1 id="a27acc86-73a8-44f2-ab87-03cd1bfe12df" data-toc-id="a27acc86-73a8-44f2-ab87-03cd1bfe12df">Calculating Averages in JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide</h1><p>Welcome to this coding tutorial! Today, we’re diving into a common coding challenge: calculating the average of a string of numbers using JavaScript functions. If you’re a beginner, don’t worry—we’ll walk through every step together.</p><div class="iframe-wrapper"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bRfkYI8Y0PM?color=white" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div><h2 id="f8383d31-79d7-4377-8f53-24c98577208c" data-toc-id="f8383d31-79d7-4377-8f53-24c98577208c">Understanding the Challenge</h2><p>Our task is to create a function that takes a string of numbers, separated by spaces, and returns the average of those numbers. If the input string is empty, we should return zero. Let's break down the steps we need to accomplish this.</p><img src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/0*ZGQApjj5zyqu_MFD" alt="Introduction to the Challenge" style="" draggable="true"><p></p><h2 id="969db43e-c132-48b3-bfad-d440494a13a0" data-toc-id="969db43e-c132-48b3-bfad-d440494a13a0">Step 1: Setting Up the Function</h2><p>First, we need to define our function. We’ll call it <strong>average</strong>. This function will take a string as a parameter. Here's how we can start:</p><pre><code>function average(numString) {
    // Function logic will go here
}
</code></pre><p>Next, we want to handle the case where the input string is empty. We can do this with a simple <strong>if</strong> statement:</p><pre><code>if (numString === "") {
    return 0;
}
</code></pre><p></p><img src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/0*4yPbCD0Kqu6Lem0L" alt="Handling Empty Strings" style="" draggable="true"><h2 id="993914e7-1cf7-4c73-b8cb-ccb0192f80d4" data-toc-id="993914e7-1cf7-4c73-b8cb-ccb0192f80d4">Step 2: Converting the String to an Array</h2><p>Now that we can handle empty inputs, the next step is to convert our string of numbers into an array. We can use the <strong>split</strong> method for this, which will split the string at each space:</p><pre><code>let numbers = numString.split(" ");
</code></pre><p>This gives us an array of strings. However, we need to convert these string numbers into actual numbers to perform calculations.</p><img src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/0*wmoBAx-xrFhDIG31" alt="Converting String to Array" style="" draggable="true"><h2 id="ce9cd029-bf36-412e-9d22-4d836528056a" data-toc-id="ce9cd029-bf36-412e-9d22-4d836528056a">Step 3: Looping Through the Array</h2><p>With our array of strings in hand, we can now loop through it. We will use a <strong>for</strong> loop to iterate over each element:</p><pre><code>for (let i = 0; i &lt; numbers.length; i++) {
    console.log(numbers[i]); // Log each number
}
</code></pre><p>At this point, we can also check the type of each element to confirm they are still strings:</p><pre><code>console.log(typeof numbers[i]);
</code></pre><img src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/0*G_RB4lKd0lNrEqSN" alt="Looping Through the Array" style="" draggable="true"><h2 id="6f2da628-18bc-4950-9c99-34c05db91632" data-toc-id="6f2da628-18bc-4950-9c99-34c05db91632">Step 4: Converting Strings to Numbers</h2><p>To convert the string numbers into actual numbers, we’ll use <strong>parseInt</strong>:</p><pre><code>let num = parseInt(numbers[i]);
</code></pre><p>Now we can accumulate the total by adding each number to a <strong>sum</strong> variable that we initialize before the loop:</p><pre><code>let sum = 0;
sum += num;
</code></pre><img src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/0*WoPdaJLNJwCzTyjn" alt="Converting Strings to Numbers" style="" draggable="true"><h2 id="c9b37590-9895-4a0c-b45d-c54483825a60" data-toc-id="c9b37590-9895-4a0c-b45d-c54483825a60">Step 5: Calculating the Average</h2><p>Once we have the sum of all numbers, we need to calculate the average. To do this, we divide the sum by the length of the numbers array:</p><pre><code>return sum / numbers.length;
</code></pre><img src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/0*3GKWFR5JMoX639EF" alt="Calculating the Average" style="" draggable="true"><h2 id="e2f7171a-35d9-4200-be55-28afb9a3e12a" data-toc-id="e2f7171a-35d9-4200-be55-28afb9a3e12a">Final Code</h2><p>Putting it all together, here’s what our complete function looks like:</p><pre><code>function average(numString) {
    if (numString === "") {
        return 0;
    }
    let numbers = numString.split(" ");
    let sum = 0;

    for (let i = 0; i &lt; numbers.length; i++) {
        sum += parseInt(numbers[i]);
    }

    return sum / numbers.length;
}
</code></pre><p>Now you can test this function with different inputs! For instance:</p><pre><code>console.log(average("12 34 56 78 90")); // Should return 54
</code></pre><h2 id="9d57e901-315f-4562-84eb-8d19c99a519e" data-toc-id="9d57e901-315f-4562-84eb-8d19c99a519e">Practice Makes Perfect!</h2><p>Don't forget to practice this on your own! You can try it out in a coding playground like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://jsfiddle.net/PreCodeCamp/358cd2xk/1/">JSFiddle</a> to see it in action.</p><h2 id="4076dcbd-031d-4f68-b571-79e604e97891" data-toc-id="4076dcbd-031d-4f68-b571-79e604e97891">FAQs</h2><h3 id="6b62170d-5285-4fba-a33d-35a50869af6e" data-toc-id="6b62170d-5285-4fba-a33d-35a50869af6e">What if I input non-numeric values?</h3><p>Good question! You might want to add checks to ensure that each element can be converted to a number before performing the addition.</p><h3 id="f4369d0f-bc89-454d-8958-dfdeac5ca1ec" data-toc-id="f4369d0f-bc89-454d-8958-dfdeac5ca1ec">Can I use other methods to convert strings to numbers?</h3><p>Yes! Besides <strong>parseInt</strong>, you can also use <strong>Number()</strong> or the unary plus operator (+) to convert strings to numbers.</p><h3 id="981bb939-b793-44ec-92da-b390639feacb" data-toc-id="981bb939-b793-44ec-92da-b390639feacb">Looking to Become A Developer?</h3><p>We have tutorials and tutors that can make that happen!</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://links.precodecamp.com/learn-to-develop">Get Started w/ Becoming A Developer</a></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>

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Mastering Average Calculation in JavaScript

Calculating Averages in JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide

Step 2: Converting the String to an Array

Can I use other methods to convert strings to numbers?

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Mastering Average Calculation in JavaScript

Mastering Average Calculation in JavaScript

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