Question

Working on a js app involving many objects, I want to be able to grab an object by a specific variable. Here is my code:

var pin = '0000';

$.each(employees, function(){
    if(this.pin === pin){
        curEmployee = this;
        return false;
    }
});

Though this approach works, I have a feeling that there are way better solutions out there… I was fiddling around with grep and tried:

var pin = '0000';

curEmployee = $.grep(employees, function(e,i){
    return e[pin] === pin;
});

However, it is harder to determine a result, since now I will need to check the length to see if an array with provided back, and such.

Just looking for a best practices solution.

Answer 1

Since an Array is always returned from $.grep, just get the [0] index of the Array. If undefined, there was no match.

var pin = '0000';

curEmployee = $.grep(employees, function(e,i){
    return e.pin === pin;
})[0]; // <--- always grab the first index

Without jQuery, you could use Array.prototype.filter in the same manner:

var pin = '0000';

curEmployee = employees.filter(function(e,i){
    return e.pin === pin;
})[0];