Question

How can I make this work? I have an space in the third element of my array ” John”.

take a look:
http://jsfiddle.net/hyHFT/

<style>
  div { color:blue; }
  span { color:red; }
</style>


<div>"John" found at <span></span></div>
<div>4 found at <span></span></div>
<div>"Karl" not found, so <span></span></div>
<script>var arr = [ 4, "  Pete", 8, "  John" ];

$("span:eq(0)").text(jQuery.inArray("John", arr));
$("span:eq(1)").text(jQuery.inArray(4, arr));
$("span:eq(2)").text(jQuery.inArray("Karl", arr));

</script>

Answer 1

Try doing this:

var arr = [ 4, "  Pete", 8, "  John" ];
arr = $(arr).map(String.prototype.trim);
...

map function applies trim to every element in the array, and stores its result (the string without spaces) into a new array, in the same position.

Having your array sanitized, you’ll find those elements.

Just a sidenote, it will convert the number to a string. Take care of that.

Good luck!

Edit:

If you want to keep the original type, use this:

$(arr).map(function(key, val) { return (typeof(val) == "string") ? val.trim() : val; })

self-explanatory, isn’t it?