Question

I have an array of homogeneous objects like so;

[
  {
    "foo" : "bar",
    "bar" : "sit"
  },
  {
    "foo" : "lorem",
    "bar" : "ipsum"
  },
  {
    "foo" : "dolor",
    "bar" : "amet"
  }
]

I’d like to search these objects’ values (not keys) with a keyword, and return an array of objects that contain the keyword in any of the values.

So for example, with a keyword r, I would get all the objects (“baR” in object #1, “loRem” in object #2 and “doloR” in object #3). With a keyword lo, I would get objects 2 and 3 (“LOrem” and “doLOr”), with a, I’d get objects 1 and 3, (“bAr” and “Amet”). With the keyword foo however, I would get an empty array, since “foo” is a key, and isn’t found in any of the values (unlike “bar”)… you get the idea.

How would I go about doing this? Thanks a lot in advance!

Answer 1

Something like this:

var objects = [
  {
    "foo" : "bar",
    "bar" : "sit"
  },
  {
    "foo" : "lorem",
    "bar" : "ipsum"
  },
  {
    "foo" : "dolor",
    "bar" : "amet"
  }
];

var results = [];

var toSearch = "lo";

for(var i=0; i<objects.length; i++) {
  for(key in objects[i]) {
    if(objects[i][key].indexOf(toSearch)!=-1) {
      results.push(objects[i]);
    }
  }
}

The results array will contain all matched objects.

If you search for ‘lo’, the result will be like:

[{ foo="lorem", bar="ipsum"}, { foo="dolor", bar="amet"}]

NEW VERSION – Added trim code, code to ensure no duplicates in result set.

function trimString(s) {
  var l=0, r=s.length -1;
  while(l < s.length && s[l] == ' ') l++;
  while(r > l && s[r] == ' ') r-=1;
  return s.substring(l, r+1);
}

function compareObjects(o1, o2) {
  var k = '';
  for(k in o1) if(o1[k] != o2[k]) return false;
  for(k in o2) if(o1[k] != o2[k]) return false;
  return true;
}

function itemExists(haystack, needle) {
  for(var i=0; i<haystack.length; i++) if(compareObjects(haystack[i], needle)) return true;
  return false;
}

var objects = [
  {
    "foo" : "bar",
    "bar" : "sit"
  },
  {
    "foo" : "lorem",
    "bar" : "ipsum"
  },
  {
    "foo" : "dolor blor",
    "bar" : "amet blo"
  }
];

function searchFor(toSearch) {
  var results = [];
  toSearch = trimString(toSearch); // trim it
  for(var i=0; i<objects.length; i++) {
    for(var key in objects[i]) {
      if(objects[i][key].indexOf(toSearch)!=-1) {
        if(!itemExists(results, objects[i])) results.push(objects[i]);
      }
    }
  }
  return results;
}

console.log(searchFor('lo '));