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

Version using Javascript exec and forEach. It achieves the same but does not use inArray.

var myArray = ["featured", "foo", "bar"];

var exp = /featured/i;

myArray.forEach( function(value){

   if( exp.exec(value) ){
    alert("yes");
   }

} );

Fiddle

Answer 2

No, I don't think so.

This is how I would to it, using ($.each and match()):

var myArray = ["featured", "foo", "bar"];


$.each(myArray,function(index,value){
    if(value.match(/featured/i) !== null){
        alert("Yes!");
        return false;
    }
});

on JSFIDDLE: http://jsfiddle.net/QGtZU/

Answer 3

You can use $.grep to filter the array and then check the length:

 if ( $.grep( myArray, function (e, i ){ return /featured/i.test(e); }).length > 0 )
    alert( "YES!" );

Answer 4

An array is not a string, but you can make it a string, by using toString

if(/featured/.test(myArray.toString())){
    alert('yes!');
}

WORKING DEMO

Answer 5

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.