Can I use a Regular Expression within jQuery.inArray()

Question

I would like the following if statement to alert \'yes\' if \'featured\' is in array, regardless of whether it is uppercase or lowercase.

I\'m also not

Answer 1

I don't think $.inArray supports regular expressions, but you could make your own function that does.

$.inArrayRegEx = function(regex, array, start) {
    if (!array) return -1;
    start = start || 0;
    for (var i = start; i < array.length; i++) {
        if (regex.test(array[i])) {
            return i;
        }
    }
    return -1;
};

Working demo: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/H4Y9A/

---

You could even override the existing inArray to make it "optionally" support regular expressions while still retaining its regular functionality:

(function() {
    var originalInArray = $.inArray;
    $.inArray = function(regex, array, start) {
        if (!array) return -1;
        start = start || 0;
        if (Object.prototype.toString.call(regex) === "[object RegExp]") {
            for (var i = start; i < array.length; i++) {
                if (regex.test(array[i])) {
                    return i;
                }
            }
            return -1;
        } else {
            return originalInArray.apply(this, arguments);
        }
    };
})();

Working demo: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/3sK7U/

Note: the one thing you would lose with this override is the ability to find a regular expression object itself in an array.