[javascript] How to parse a string in JavaScript?

as amber and sinan have noted above, the javascritp '.split' method will work just fine. Just pass it the string separator(-) and the string that you intend to split('123-abc-itchy-knee') and it will do the rest.

    var coolVar = '123-abc-itchy-knee';
    var coolVarParts = coolVar.split('-'); // this is an array containing the items

    var1=coolVarParts[0]; //this will retrieve 123

To access each item from the array just use the respective index(indices start at zero).