Determine whether an array contains a value [dupli

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• How do I check if an array includes an object in JavaScript? 44 answers

I need to determine if a value exists in an array.

I am using the following function:

Array.prototype.contains = function(obj) {
    var i = this.length;
    while (i--) {
        if (this[i] == obj) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

The above function always returns false.

The array values and the function call is as below:

arrValues = ["Sam","Great", "Sample", "High"]
alert(arrValues.contains("Sam"));

Answer 1

You can use _.indexOf method or if you don't want to include whole Underscore.js library in your app, you can have a look how they did it and extract necessary code.

    _.indexOf = function(array, item, isSorted) {
    if (array == null) return -1;
    var i = 0, l = array.length;
    if (isSorted) {
      if (typeof isSorted == 'number') {
        i = (isSorted < 0 ? Math.max(0, l + isSorted) : isSorted);
      } else {
        i = _.sortedIndex(array, item);
        return array[i] === item ? i : -1;
      }
    }
    if (nativeIndexOf && array.indexOf === nativeIndexOf) return array.indexOf(item, isSorted);
    for (; i < l; i++) if (array[i] === item) return i;
    return -1;
  };

Answer 2

Wow, there are a lot of great answers to this question.

I didn't see one that takes a reduce approach so I'll add it in:

var searchForValue = 'pig';

var valueIsInArray = ['horse', 'cat', 'dog'].reduce(function(previous, current){
    return previous || searchForValue === current ? true : false;
}, false);

console.log('The value "' + searchForValue + '" is in the array: ' + valueIsInArray);

Here's a fiddle of it in action.

Answer 3

Using array .map function that executes a function for every value in an array seems cleanest to me.

Ref: Array.prototype.map()

This method can work well both for simple arrays and for arrays of objects where you need to see if a key/value exists in an array of objects.

function inArray(myArray,myValue){
    var inArray = false;
    myArray.map(function(key){
        if (key === myValue){
            inArray=true;
        }
    });
    return inArray;
};

var anArray = [2,4,6,8]
console.log(inArray(anArray, 8)); // returns true
console.log(inArray(anArray, 1)); // returns false

function inArrayOfObjects(myArray,myValue,objElement){
    var inArray = false;
    myArray.map(function(arrayObj){
        if (arrayObj[objElement] === myValue) {
            inArray=true;
        }
    });
    return inArray;
};

var objArray = [{id:4,value:'foo'},{id:5,value:'bar'}]
console.log(inArrayOfObjects(objArray, 4, 'id')); // returns true
console.log(inArrayOfObjects(objArray, 'bar', 'value')); // returns true
console.log(inArrayOfObjects(objArray, 1, 'id')); // returns false

Answer 4

It's almost always safer to use a library like lodash simply because of all the issues with cross-browser compatibilities and efficiency.

Efficiency because you can be guaranteed that at any given time, a hugely popular library like underscore will have the most efficient method of accomplishing a utility function like this.

_.includes([1, 2, 3], 3); // returns true

If you're concerned about the bulk that's being added to your application by including the whole library, know that you can include functionality separately:

var includes = require('lodash/collections/includes');

---

NOTICE: With older versions of lodash, this was _.contains() rather than _.includes().

Answer 5

Another option would be to use Array.some (if available) in the following way:

Array.prototype.contains = function(obj) {
  return this.some( function(e){ return e === obj } );
}

The anonymous function passed to Array.some will return true if and only if there is an element in the array that is identical to obj. Absent such an element, the function will not return true for any of the elements of the array, so Array.some will return false as well.

Answer 6

The answer provided didn't work for me, but it gave me an idea:

Array.prototype.contains = function(obj)
    {
        return (this.join(',')).indexOf(obj) > -1;
    }

It isn't perfect because items that are the same beyond the groupings could end up matching. Such as my example

var c=[];
var d=[];
function a()
{
    var e = '1';
    var f = '2';
    c[0] = ['1','1'];
    c[1] = ['2','2'];
    c[2] = ['3','3'];
    d[0] = [document.getElementById('g').value,document.getElementById('h').value];

    document.getElementById('i').value = c.join(',');
    document.getElementById('j').value = d.join(',');
    document.getElementById('b').value = c.contains(d);
}

When I call this function with the 'g' and 'h' fields containing 1 and 2 respectively, it still finds it because the resulting string from the join is: 1,1,2,2,3,3

Since it is doubtful in my situation that I will come across this type of situation, I'm using this. I thought I would share incase someone else couldn't make the chosen answer work either.