I have the following example JavaScript array of objects and need to enable users to search on it using words/phrases, returning the objects:

var items = [];
var obj = {
    index: 1,
    content: "This is a sample text to search."
};
items.push(obj);
obj = {
    index: 2,
    content: "Here's another sample text to search."
};
items.push(obj);

It's probably efficient to use jQuery's $.grep to perform the search, such as this for a single word:

var keyword = "Here";
var results = $.grep(items, function (e) { 
    return e.content.indexOf(keyword) != -1; 
});

However, how do you search for a phrase in the content field of the objects? For example, searching for the phrase another text won't work using indexOf, because the two words aren't next to each other. What's an efficient way to perform this search in jQuery?

I have the following example JavaScript array of objects and need to enable users to search on it using words/phrases, returning the objects:

var items = [];
var obj = {
    index: 1,
    content: "This is a sample text to search."
};
items.push(obj);
obj = {
    index: 2,
    content: "Here's another sample text to search."
};
items.push(obj);

It's probably efficient to use jQuery's $.grep to perform the search, such as this for a single word:

var keyword = "Here";
var results = $.grep(items, function (e) { 
    return e.content.indexOf(keyword) != -1; 
});

However, how do you search for a phrase in the content field of the objects? For example, searching for the phrase another text won't work using indexOf, because the two words aren't next to each other. What's an efficient way to perform this search in jQuery?

• javascript
• jquery
• arrays
• full-text-search

• 1 how about :contains? – Guruprasad J Rao Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 12:45
• Thanks, @GuruprasadRao. Does :contains take into account that the phrase words don't have to be consecutive, but can be anywhere in the text? – Alex Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 12:49
• 1 Yes!! Check this link for more detail – Guruprasad J Rao Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 13:07

2 Answers 2

You can use vanilla JS if you're stuck. It does use filter and every which won't work in older browsers, but there are polyfills available.

var items = [];

var obj = {
  index: 1,
  content: "This is a sample text to search."
};

items.push(obj);

obj = {
  index: 2,
  content: "Here's another sample text to search."
};

items.push(obj);

function find(items, text) {
  text = text.split(' ');
  return items.filter(item => {
    return text.every(el => {
      return item.content.includes(el);
    });
  });
}

console.log(find(items, 'text')) // both objects
console.log(find(items, 'another')) // object 2
console.log(find(items, 'another text')) // object 2
console.log(find(items, 'is text')) // object 1

(Edit: updated to use includes, and a slightly shorter arrow function syntax).

if you use query-js you can do this like so

var words = phrase.split(' ');
items.where(function(e){
           return words.aggregate(function(state, w){ 
                    return state && e.content.indexOf(w) >= 0;
                  });
},true);

if it should just match at least one change the && to || and true to false