Question

The value of tousers has users separated by a semi-colon.

<input type='text' class='tousers' value='admin;user1;user2;user3;useradmin;' />

How do I search if admin already exists between semi-colons? So the below code wouldn’t add admin to tousers because it already exists.

var content = 'admin';

var to = input.find('.tousers').val();

if(to == "") {
    input.find('.tousers').val(content);
} else {
    input.find('.tousers').val(to + ';' + content);
}

Answer 1

This will add the new item to the tousers input element if it is already not available, else show an alert saying “Already present”

   $(function(){
      var newContent = 'user1';  
      var existingContent=$(".tousers").val()
      var existingArr=existingContent.split(";")
      var isPresent=$.inArray(newContent ,existingArr)       
      if(isPresent<0)
      {       
          $(".tousers").val(existingContent+newContent+";" );
      }
      else      
      {
         alert("Already present");
      }    
    });

Working sample : http://jsfiddle.net/WsELx/11/