Question: I have multiple lines of text in log files in this kind of format:

```
topic, this is the message part, with, occasional commas.

```

How can I split the string from the first comma so I would have the topic and the rest of the message in two different variables?

I've tried using this kind of split, but it doesn't work when there's more commas in the message part.

```
[topic, message] = whole_message.split(",", 2);

```

Answer: 
Use a regex that gets "everything but the first comma". So:

```
whole_message.match(/([^,]*),(.*)/)

```

`[1]` will be the topic, `[2]` will be the message.
Why not split by comma, take the [0] item as topic then remove the topic(+,) from the original string ?

You could:

```
var topic = whole_message.split(",")[0]

```

(using prototype.js)

```
var message = whole_message.gsub(topic+", ", "") 

```

(using jQuery)

```
whole_message.replace(topic+", ", "")

```

Or quicker, go with josh.trow