Javascript – ExecWB Print Preview Sometimes shows blank pages

In the question, there existed a race condition between:

1. The browser's attempt to initialize the drop-down list, ready to have its selected index updated, and
2. Your code to set the selected index

Your code was consistently winning this race and attempting to set drop-down selection before the browser was ready, meaning that the bug would appear.

This race existed because JavaScript has a single thread of execution that is shared with page rendering. In effect, running JavaScript blocks the updating of the DOM.

Your workaround was:

setTimeout(callback, 0)

Invoking setTimeout with a callback, and zero as the second argument will schedule the callback to be run asynchronously, after the shortest possible delay - which will be around 10ms when the tab has focus and the JavaScript thread of execution is not busy.

The OP's solution, therefore was to delay by about 10ms, the setting of the selected index. This gave the browser an opportunity to initialize the DOM, fixing the bug.

Every version of Internet Explorer exhibited quirky behaviors and this kind of workaround was necessary at times. Alternatively it might have been a genuine bug in the OP's codebase.

See Philip Roberts talk "What the heck is the event loop?" for more thorough explanation.

I used the idea from Kerry's answer, but simplified it since I was just looking for something simple for my specific purpose. Here is what I did:

function numberWithCommas(x) {
    return x.toString().replace(/\B(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, ",");
}

function numberWithCommas(x) {
    return x.toString().replace(/\B(?<!\.\d*)(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, ",");
}

function test(x, expect) {
    const result = numberWithCommas(x);
    const pass = result === expect;
    console.log(`${pass ? "✓" : "ERROR ====>"} ${x} => ${result}`);
    return pass;
}

let failures = 0;
failures += !test(0,        "0");
failures += !test(100,      "100");
failures += !test(1000,     "1,000");
failures += !test(10000,    "10,000");
failures += !test(100000,   "100,000");
failures += !test(1000000,  "1,000,000");
failures += !test(10000000, "10,000,000");
if (failures) {
    console.log(`${failures} test(s) failed`);
} else {
    console.log("All tests passed");
}

.as-console-wrapper {
    max-height: 100% !important;
}

The regex uses 2 lookahead assertions:

• a positive one to look for any point in the string that has a multiple of 3 digits in a row after it,
• a negative assertion to make sure that point only has exactly a multiple of 3 digits. The replacement expression puts a comma there.

For example, if you pass it 123456789.01, the positive assertion will match every spot to the left of the 7 (since 789 is a multiple of 3 digits, 678 is a multiple of 3 digits, 567, etc.). The negative assertion checks that the multiple of 3 digits does not have any digits after it. 789 has a period after it so it is exactly a multiple of 3 digits, so a comma goes there. 678 is a multiple of 3 digits but it has a 9 after it, so those 3 digits are part of a group of 4, and a comma does not go there. Similarly for 567. 456789 is 6 digits, which is a multiple of 3, so a comma goes before that. 345678 is a multiple of 3, but it has a 9 after it, so no comma goes there. And so on. The \B keeps the regex from putting a comma at the beginning of the string.

@neu-rah mentioned that this function adds commas in undesirable places if there are more than 3 digits after the decimal point. If this is a problem, you can use this function:

function numberWithCommas(x) {
    var parts = x.toString().split(".");
    parts[0] = parts[0].replace(/\B(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, ",");
    return parts.join(".");
}

function numberWithCommas(x) {
    var parts = x.toString().split(".");
    parts[0] = parts[0].replace(/\B(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, ",");
    return parts.join(".");
}

function test(x, expect) {
    const result = numberWithCommas(x);
    const pass = result === expect;
    console.log(`${pass ? "✓" : "ERROR ====>"} ${x} => ${result}`);
    return pass;
}

let failures = 0;
failures += !test(0              , "0");
failures += !test(0.123456       , "0.123456");
failures += !test(100            , "100");
failures += !test(100.123456     , "100.123456");
failures += !test(1000           , "1,000");
failures += !test(1000.123456    , "1,000.123456");
failures += !test(10000          , "10,000");
failures += !test(10000.123456   , "10,000.123456");
failures += !test(100000         , "100,000");
failures += !test(100000.123456  , "100,000.123456");
failures += !test(1000000        , "1,000,000");
failures += !test(1000000.123456 , "1,000,000.123456");
failures += !test(10000000       , "10,000,000");
failures += !test(10000000.123456, "10,000,000.123456");
if (failures) {
    console.log(`${failures} test(s) failed`);
} else {
    console.log("All tests passed");
}

.as-console-wrapper {
    max-height: 100% !important;
}

@t.j.crowder pointed out that now that JavaScript has lookbehind (support info), it can be solved in the regular expression itself:

function numberWithCommas(x) {
    return x.toString().replace(/\B(?<!\.\d*)(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, ",");
}

function numberWithCommas(x) {
    return x.toString().replace(/\B(?<!\.\d*)(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, ",");
}

function test(x, expect) {
    const result = numberWithCommas(x);
    const pass = result === expect;
    console.log(`${pass ? "✓" : "ERROR ====>"} ${x} => ${result}`);
    return pass;
}

let failures = 0;
failures += !test(0,               "0");
failures += !test(0.123456,        "0.123456");
failures += !test(100,             "100");
failures += !test(100.123456,      "100.123456");
failures += !test(1000,            "1,000");
failures += !test(1000.123456,     "1,000.123456");
failures += !test(10000,           "10,000");
failures += !test(10000.123456,    "10,000.123456");
failures += !test(100000,          "100,000");
failures += !test(100000.123456,   "100,000.123456");
failures += !test(1000000,         "1,000,000");
failures += !test(1000000.123456,  "1,000,000.123456");
failures += !test(10000000,        "10,000,000");
failures += !test(10000000.123456, "10,000,000.123456");
if (failures) {
    console.log(`${failures} test(s) failed`);
} else {
    console.log("All tests passed");
}

.as-console-wrapper {
    max-height: 100% !important;
}

(?<!\.\d*) is a negative lookbehind that says the match can't be preceded by a . followed by zero or more digits. The negative lookbehind is faster than the split and join solution (comparison), at least in V8.