function to check how many times a character appears in a string
function letterCount(string, letter, caseSensitive) {
var count = 0;
if ( !caseSensitive) {
string = string.toUpperCase();
letter = letter.toUpperCase();
}
for (var i=0, l=string.length; i<string.length; i += 1) {
if (string[i] === letter) {
count += 1;
}
}
return count;
}
var exampleString = 'I will practice survival skills';
console.log(letterCount(exampleString, 'i', true)); // 4 (doesn't match uppercase I at beginning)
console.log(letterCount(exampleString, 'i', false)); 5 (matches both upper and lowercase i)