Jquery how to find an Object by attribute in an Array

Given I have an array of "purpose" objects:

//array of purpose objects:
var purposeObjects = [
    {purpose: "daily"},
    {purpose: "weekly"},
    {purpose: "monthly"}
];

(for simplicity i am omitting other attributes)

Now I want to have a method that returns a specific one of the objects if a matching purpose name is found.

This is not working:

function findPurpose(purposeName){
    return $.grep(purposeObjects, function(){
      return this.purpose == purposeName;
    });
};

findPurpose("daily");

but it actually returns an empty array:

[]

I am using JQuery 1.5.2. I have also tried with $.each() but with no luck. Apparently, most JQuery methods are designed for usage with DOM elements (such as filter().

Any ideas on how to achieve this?

No need for jQuery.

JavaScript arrays have a find method, so you can achieve that in one line:

array.find((o) => { return o[propertyName] === propertyValue })

Example

const purposeObjects = [
    {purpose: "daily"},
    {purpose: "weekly"},
    {purpose: "monthly"}
];

purposeObjects.find((o) => { return o["purpose"] === "weekly" })      

// output -> {purpose: "weekly"}

If you need IE compatibility, import this polyfill in your code.

you should pass reference on item in grep function:

function findPurpose(purposeName){
    return $.grep(purposeObjects, function(item){
      return item.purpose == purposeName;
    });
};

Example

I personally use a more generic function that works for any property of any array:

function lookup(array, prop, value) {
	for (var i = 0, len = array.length; i < len; i++)
		if (array[i] && array[i][prop] === value) return array[i];
}

You just call it like this:

lookup(purposeObjects, "purpose", "daily");

The error was that you cannot use this in the grep, but you must use a reference to the element. This works:

function findPurpose(purposeName){
    return $.grep(purposeObjects, function(n, i){
      return n.purpose == purposeName;
    });
};

findPurpose("daily");

returns:

[Object { purpose="daily"}]

Use the Underscore.js findWhere function (http://underscorejs.org/#findWhere):

var purposeObjects = [
    {purpose: "daily"},
    {purpose: "weekly"},
    {purpose: "monthly"}
];

var daily = _.findWhere(purposeObjects, {purpose: 'daily'});

daily would equal:

{"purpose":"daily"}

Here's a fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/spencerw/oqbgc21x/

To return more than one (if you had more in your array) you could use _.where(...)

Best, Fastest way is

function arrayLookup(array, prop, val) {
    for (var i = 0, len = array.length; i < len; i++) {
        if (array[i].hasOwnProperty(prop) && array[i][prop] === val) {
            return array[i];
        }
    }
    return null;
}

If your array is actually a set of JQuery objects, what about simply using the .filter() method ?

purposeObjects.filter('[purpose="daily"]')

One more solution:

function firstOrNull(array, expr) {
  for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
    if (expr(array[i]))
      return array[i];
    }
  return null;
}

Using: firstOrNull([{ a: 1, b: 2 }, { a: 3, b: 3 }], function(item) { return item.a === 3; });

This function don't executes for each element from the array (it's valuable for large arrays)

I have created a util service for my angular application. It have two function which use very often.

For example you have object.

First getting value from object recursively without throwing undefined error.

{prop: { nestedProp1: {nestedProp2: somevalue}}}; get nestedProp2 2 without undefined checks.

Second filter array on basis

[{prop: { nestedProp1: {nestedProp2: somevalue1}}}, {prop: { nestedProp1: {nestedProp2: somevalue2}}}];

Find object from array with nestedProp2=somevalue2

app.service('UtilService', function(httpService) {
this.mapStringKeyVal = function(map, field) {
	var lastIdentifiedVal = null;
	var parentVal = map;
	field.split('.').forEach(function(val){
		if(parentVal[val]){
			lastIdentifiedVal = parentVal[val]; 
			parentVal = parentVal[val]; 
		}
	});
	return lastIdentifiedVal;
}


this.arrayPropFilter = function(array, field,value) {
	var lastIdentifiedVal = null;
	var mapStringKeyVal = this.mapStringKeyVal;
	array.forEach(function(arrayItem){
		var valueFound = mapStringKeyVal(arrayItem,field);
		if(!lastIdentifiedVal  && valueFound && valueFound==value){
			lastIdentifiedVal = arrayItem;
		}
	});
	return lastIdentifiedVal;
}});

For solution for current question. inject UtilService and call,

UtilService.arrayPropFilter(purposeArray,'purpose','daily');

Or more advanced

UtilService.arrayPropFilter(purposeArray,'purpose.nestedProp1.nestedProp2','daily');

Javascript has a function just for that: Array.prototype.find. As example

function isBigEnough(element) {
  return element >= 15;
}

[12, 5, 8, 130, 44].find(isBigEnough); // 130

It not difficult to extends the callback to a function. However this is not compatible with IE (and partially with Edge). For a full list look at the Browser Compatibility

copied from polyfill Array.prototype.find code of Array.find, and added the array as first parameter.

you can pass the search term as predicate function

// Example
var listOfObjects = [{key: "1", value: "one"}, {key: "2", value: "two"}]
var result = findInArray(listOfObjects, function(element) {
  return element.key == "1";
});
console.log(result);

// the function you want
function findInArray(listOfObjects, predicate) {
      if (listOfObjects == null) {
        throw new TypeError('listOfObjects is null or not defined');
      }

      var o = Object(listOfObjects);

      var len = o.length >>> 0;

      if (typeof predicate !== 'function') {
        throw new TypeError('predicate must be a function');
      }

      var thisArg = arguments[1];

      var k = 0;

      while (k < len) {
        var kValue = o[k];
        if (predicate.call(thisArg, kValue, k, o)) {
          return kValue;
        }
        k++;
      }

      return undefined;
}