Question

I have an array like this:

employees = [
        {
        "id": 1,
        "shift_id": 1,
        "days": {
            "2012-03-01": 1,
            "2012-03-02": 1,
            "2012-03-03": 1,
            "2012-03-04": 0,
            "2012-03-05": 0,
            "2012-03-06": 0
        }},
    {
        "id": 2,
        "shift_id": 1,
        "days": {
            "2012-03-01": 0,
            "2012-03-02": 1,
            "2012-03-03": 1,
            "2012-03-04": 1,
            "2012-03-05": 1,
            "2012-03-06": 0
        }},
    {
        "id": 3,
        "shift_id": 2,
        "days": {
            "2012-03-01": 0,
            "2012-03-02": 0,
            "2012-03-03": 1,
            "2012-03-04": 1,
            "2012-03-05": 1,
            "2012-03-06": 1
        }}

    ];

is there a way to access an element in this array using the id value?
maybe something in jquery?
like $(employees('id = 1');

Answer 1

As far as I am aware, in order to achieve that you would have to loop through them

 Array.prototype.getObjectById = function(x){
      var catcher = false, i = 0;
      while(!catcher){
        catcher = this[i].id == x ? this[i] : false;
        i++;
      }
      return catcher;
    }

This function should help. It will extend the array object so you can use it as myArray.getObjectbyId(id);

By design, this will return the first object that meets the criteria. You could extend it like so:

Array.prototype.getObjectsById = function(x){
  var catcher = [], i = 0;
  for(var i = 0; i < this.length; i++){
    if(this[i].id == value){
      catcher.push(this[i]);
    }
    i++;
  }
  return catcher.length == 1 ? catcher[0] : catcher;
}

This will return an array of objects if more than one object matches the criteria.

 Array.prototype.getObjectsByAttribute = function(x, criteria){
      if(!criteria){criteria = 'id';}
      var catcher = [], i = 0;
      for(var i = 0; i < this.length; i++){
        if(this[i].criteria == value){
         catcher.push(this[i]);
        }
        i++;
      }
      return catcher.length == 1 ? catcher[0] : catcher;
    }

This extends it further to look for any criteria.