Question

Hi I am really struggling making code for a function that ‘returns an array of indexes from an already populated array containing strings, when it matches the search term’.
So if the search term matches a word or characters in the element of the array regardless of its order, it should return the indexes in which those words are apparent in the array. Not using jquery grep feature.
Here is some code to illustrate what I mean.

array_test = ["Today was hot","Tomorrow will be hot aswell", "Yesterday the weather was not so good","o1234 t12345"]

function locateSearch(array_test,searchTerm){ 
var myArray = [];

for(i=0;i<array_test.length;i++){ 
if(...) // what should i be testing here, this is where i have been going wrong... 

myArray[myArray.length] = i; 
} 
 return myArray;  
}

document.write(locateSearch,'ot') //this should return indexes [0,1,2,3]

Sorry If I have not explained this so well, appreciate your help. Thank you.

Answer 1

array_test = ["Today was hot","Tomorrow will be hot aswell", "Yesterday the weather was not so good","o1234 t12345"];

function locateSearch(array_test,searchTerm){
    searchTerm = searchTerm.toLowerCase();
    var myArray = [];
    for(var i = 0; i < array_test.length; i++){
        for(var j = 0; j < searchTerm.length; j++) {
            if(array_test[i].toLowerCase().indexOf(searchTerm[j]) >= 0) {
                myArray.push(i);
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    return myArray;  
}

alert(locateSearch(array_test, 'To').toString());

Also see this jsfiddle.

=== UPDATE ===

If every char has to be in the same string:

array_test = ["Today was hot","Tomorrow will be hot aswell", "Yesterday the weather was not so good","o1234 t12345"];

function locateSearch(array_test,searchTerm){
    searchTerm = searchTerm.toLowerCase();
    var myArray = [];
    var bFound;
    for(var i = 0; i < array_test.length; i++){
        bFound = true;
        for(var j = 0; j < searchTerm.length; j++) {
            if(array_test[i].toLowerCase().indexOf(searchTerm[j]) == -1) {
                bFound = false;
                break;
            }
        }
        if (bFound) {
            myArray.push(i);
        }
    }
    return myArray;  
}

alert(locateSearch(array_test, 'es').toString());

Also see my updated jsfiddle.