### Author:  [@quargsgreene](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quargsgreene)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/1 "2021-03-26T16:28:53Z")
I am trying to create something which generates some gibberish from a box which the user inputs text and I keep getting the ‘cannot read property ‘split’ of undefined’ error when the mousePressed event fires. This error does not happen when I pass a string into the function I declared inside of draw. I tried iterating both over the array and the string in the for loop and neither worked. See below. Thanks.
```auto
function setup() {
createCanvas(windowWidth,windowHeight);
background(196, 170, 0);
let col=color(170, 127, 245);
let col2=color(97, 255, 139);
let col3=color(201, 172, 22);
let col4=color(132, 0, 255);
let col5=color(252, 249, 136);
let col6=color(255, 247, 0);
let size=300;
let box = createInput();
box.position(100,100);
box.style('background-color',col);
box.style('border-color',col2);
box.style('width',size+'px');
box.style('height',size+'px');
box.style('color',col6);
let button = createButton('Gibberish');
button.position(box.x + box.width,100);
button.style('background-color',col4);
button.style('color',col5);
//Doesn't work
button.mousePressed(gibberish);
}
function draw() {
//Works fine
gibberish('abcdefghijklmnop');
}
function gibberish(str){
let splitStr = str.split('');
let col = color(138, 106, 0);
let stringInit ='';
let a=width/2;
let b=height/2;
for(let i=0;i
### Author:  [@micuat](https://discourse.processing.org/u/micuat)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/2 "2021-03-26T17:25:52Z")
First you should try to `console.log` everything that is suspicious. I printed `str` in the function and it was undefined. It seems `mousePressed` does not pass any argument, but binds the element to `this`. However, in your case `this` will be `button` so you cannot access the value that way. I would replace
```javascript
button.mousePressed(gibberish);
```
with anonymous function
```javascript
button.mousePressed(function() {
gibberish(box.value())
});
```
to pass the value explicitly (by the way, you need to call `value` function to access the value inside box). And one last thing, you should avoid using the name `box` as it’s reserved by p5.js (in WEBGL - in this case it’s irrelevant but it’s a good practice to make sure names don’t overlap)
---
### Author:  [@quargsgreene](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quargsgreene)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/3 "2021-03-28T19:00:38Z")
Interestingly, I get just blankness when I include console.log, as well as the function not being defined within the anonymous function, despite the gibberish being declared where it should be accessible globally.
---
### Author:  [@micuat](https://discourse.processing.org/u/micuat)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/4 "2021-03-28T19:25:56Z")
sorry can you be more precise about what you did and what happened? Doesn’t this work?
[https://editor.p5js.org/micuat/sketches/4Z9AI2sZ\_](https://editor.p5js.org/micuat/sketches/4Z9AI2sZ_)
---
### Author:  [@quargsgreene](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quargsgreene)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2021, 9:26pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/5 "2021-03-28T21:26:35Z")
Okay. I see what I did the second time around. It was a silly spelling error. I had meant earlier passing the string into console.log() as you had described (I think I had written too hastily).
---
### Author:  [@micuat](https://discourse.processing.org/u/micuat)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/6 "2021-03-28T21:57:18Z")
I see! I hope it helped. And when the output of `console.log` is empty - you have to observe it carefully. If, in the console, no attempt was made to print anything, that means that `console.log` was not executed and that block was somehow skipped. If you see `undefined` then the value is undefined (in this case). If it’s `null`, that’s another case.
From this observation you can understand that `mousePressed` actually doesn’t pass any arguments. And that’s why I used `box.value()` to explicitly input from the textbox element.
---
### Author:  [@GoToLoop](https://discourse.processing.org/u/GoToLoop)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2021, 11:40pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/7 "2021-03-28T23:40:26Z")
> [@micuat](#):
>
> From this observation you can understand that `mousePressed` actually doesn’t pass any arguments.
Actually it does; but it’s not a String. Instead it’s a MouseEvent object:
> **[MouseEvent - Web APIs | MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MouseEvent)**
>
> The MouseEvent interface represents events that occur due to the user interacting with a pointing device (such as a mouse).
> Common events using this interface include click, dblclick, mouseup, mousedown.
So if we log **gibberish()**'s parameter _str_ we’ll have that confirmation:
```javascript
function gibberish(str) {
print(str); // MouseEvent {isTrusted: true, screenX: 674, screenY: 308, clientX: 674, clientY: 185, …}
// ...
}
```
---
### Author:  [@quargsgreene](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quargsgreene)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2021, 3:25am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/8 "2021-03-29T03:25:05Z")
Yes, this ended up working, thanks.
---
### Author:  [@micuat](https://discourse.processing.org/u/micuat)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2021, 11:21am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/9 "2021-03-29T11:21:11Z")
I double checked but that’s not true. In fact, MouseEvent is only passed in `mousePressed` overload and not in the event callback functions, which is actually quite strange.
[https://editor.p5js.org/micuat/sketches/8g0nAOeoW](https://editor.p5js.org/micuat/sketches/8g0nAOeoW)
---
### Author:  [@GoToLoop](https://discourse.processing.org/u/GoToLoop)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/cannot-read-property-split-of-undefined/28877/10 "2021-03-29T20:29:44Z")
Indeed you’re right! 😳
Just checked the sketch I’ve relied on and it was the global **mousePressed()** not the p5.Element 1. 🥴