I have an array like this (with just over 3000 objects instead of the 3 here):
items = [{name:'charlie', age:'16'}, {name:'ben', age:'18'}, {name:'steve', age:'18'}]
What's the best way to return an array with just the objects of people who are 18? So I want:
items = [{name:'ben', age:'18'}, {name:'steve', age:'18'}]
The best I can think of is this (using jQuery):
newArray = []
$.each(items, function(index, item) {
if(item.age=='18') {
newArray.push(item)
}
})
Considering that there's 3000 thousand objects, and also that I'll be doing that comparison up to fifty times in one go, that's a lot of looping. Is there a better way?
You can use pure javascript
var wanted = items.filter( function(item){return (item.age==18);} );
And if your browser does not support the 1.6 version of javascript you can find an implementation of the filter method at https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/filter
Update
Speedwise there is a huge varying (had an error in the test) difference from a normal loop (depending on browser).. Have a look at this little test i made at http://jsperf.com/array-filter-vs-loop/3
Get matched item and items using find() and filter() method
If you want first matched single item, use find() method which returns single object.
If you want all matched , use filter() method which returns array of objects.
let items = [{name:'charlie', age:'16'},
{name:'ben', age:'18'},
{name:'steve', age:'18'}]
let all = items.filter(item=> item.age==='18')
console.log(all);
let single = items.find(item=> item.age==='18')
console.log(single);If you're going to do the search often it may be best to keep a version of your data in a form that is quick to access. I've used underscore.js (http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/) to make it easy for myself, but this code here will create an object that holds your data indexed by the age field.
You end up with something that looks like this:
{
"16": [
{
"name": "charlie",
"age": "16"
}
],
"18": [
{
"name": "ben",
"age": "18"
},
{
"name": "steve",
"age": "18"
}
]
}
The code:
var itemsByAge = _(items).reduce(function(memo, item) {
memo[item.age] = memo[item.age] || [];
memo[item.age].push(item);
return memo;
}, {});
alert(JSON.stringify(itemsByAge["18"]));