Search through JavaScript object using a whitelist/filterlist

Question

I am trying to build a small search function where I can search through some JavaScript objects even if there are arrays in it. I got it working but I would like to ask if someone can find a better approach than the one I made. Also, I assume I have some cases I did not think of.

My current search function looks as follows:

function searchFor(needle, haystack, filter, inside){
    if (inside == undefined) inside = 1;
    if (filter){
        for (var c = 0; c < filter.length; c++) {
            var splittedFilter = filter[c].split('.');
            for (var s = 0; s < splittedFilter.length; s++) {
                var obj = haystack[splittedFilter[s]];
                if (obj){
                    if (Array.isArray(obj) && obj.length > 0){
                        for (var i = 0; i < obj.length; i++) {
                            var result = searchFor(needle, obj[i], [splittedFilter[inside]], inside+1);
                            if (result) return true;
                        }
                    } else if( typeof obj == "object"){
                        var result = searchFor(needle, obj, [splittedFilter[inside]], inside+1);
                        if (result) return true;
                    } else {
                        if (obj.toLowerCase().indexOf(needle.toLowerCase()) != -1){
                            return true;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return false
}

The filterlist:

var filter = ['company', 'friends.name'];

The haystack:

var hay =  [
  {
    "id": "57db96f4acfaec3218383063",
    "name": {
      "first": "Nora",
      "last": "Cooke"
    },
    "company": "MITROC",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "friends": [
      {
        "id": 0,
        "name": "West Duke"
      },
      {
        "id": 1,
        "name": "Williams Kelley"
      },
      {
        "id": 2,
        "name": "Amelia Kirk"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "57db96f4d5cae409054d3a5b",
    "name": {
      "first": "Dickson",
      "last": "Moses"
    },
    "company": "VISUALIX",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "friends": [
      {
        "id": 0,
        "name": "Patty Carr"
      },
      {
        "id": 1,
        "name": "Bowers Wilkerson"
      },
      {
        "id": 2,
        "name": "Fox Kidd"
      }
    ]
  }
];

The execution of the search function:

hay.forEach(function(element) {
    if (searchFor('Duke', element, filter)) {
        document.getElementById('result').innerHTML = document.getElementById('result').innerHTML + '<br />' + JSON.stringify(element);
    }
}, this);

needle is the string to search for
haystack is one object
filter is an array of filters, like: var filter = ['company'];
inside is to determine how far in the recursive loop the function is

I made a live example here.

Nina Scholz · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-16 09:13:01Z

You could use a simplified version for lookup all needed values and the check against the needle.

function search(needle, haystack, filter) {
    return filter.some(function (f) {
        function iter(o, i) {
            var item;

            if (!(ff[i] in o)) {
                return false;
            }

            item = o[ff[i]];
            i++;

            if (i === ff.length) {
                return item.indexOf(needle) !== -1;
            }

            if (Array.isArray(item)) {
                return item.some(function (a) {
                    return iter(a, i);
                });
            }
            return iter(item, i);
        }

        var ff = f.split('.');

        return iter(haystack, 0);
    });
}

var filter = ['company', 'friends.name'],
    hay = [{ "id": "57db96f4acfaec3218383063", "name": { "first": "Nora", "last": "Cooke" }, "company": "MITROC", "email": "[email protected]", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "West Duke" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Williams Kelley" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Amelia Kirk" }] }, { "id": "57db96f4d5cae409054d3a5b", "name": { "first": "Dickson", "last": "Moses" }, "company": "VISUALIX", "email": "[email protected]", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Patty Carr" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Bowers Wilkerson" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Fox Kidd" }] }, { "id": "57db96f42215bea719d83036", "name": { "first": "Kerr", "last": "Gray" }, "company": "TUBESYS", "email": "[email protected]", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Rose Pierce" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Matthews Moore" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Brenda Ayala" }] }, { "id": "57db96f435d0f064afc90768", "name": { "first": "Elsie", "last": "Dejesus" }, "company": "KLUGGER", "email": "[email protected]", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Gina Cruz" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Nieves Carrillo" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Chandler Sanford" }] }, { "id": "57db96f4597631fffff36b6b", "name": { "first": "Chan", "last": "Mcdaniel" }, "company": "AQUACINE", "email": "[email protected]", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Hodge Sweeney" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Sweet Burnett" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Lynn Hunter" }] }];

console.log(hay.map(function (a) {
    return search('Sweet', a, filter);
}));

console.log(hay.map(function (a) {
    return search('Rose', a, filter);
}));

.as-console-wrapper { max-height: 100% !important; top: 0; }

This looks exactly like what i want. I am trying to understand this and implement it in my test case and will report back afterwards. — Styler2go
– Styler2go, Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 9:28

Redu · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-16 14:22:19Z

By an invention of Object.prototype.getNestedValue() this job can also be done as follows;

Object.prototype.getNestedValue = function(...a) {
  return a.length > 1 ? (this[a[0]] !== void 0 && this[a[0]].getNestedValue(...a.slice(1))) : this[a[0]];
};

function searchFor(hay,needles,filter){
  var filters = filter.map(f => f.split("."));
  return needles.map(n => hay.map(h => filters.some(f => { var value = h.getNestedValue(f[0]);
                                                           return Array.isArray(value) ? searchFor(value,[n],f.slice(1))[0].reduce((p,c) => p||c)
                                                                                       : value.toLowerCase().indexOf(n) !== -1;
                                                         })));
}

var hay =  [{"id":"57db96f4acfaec3218383063","name":{"first":"Nora","last":"Cooke"},"company":"MITROC","email":"[email protected]","friends":[{"id":0,"name":"West Duke"},{"id":1,"name":"Williams Kelley"},{"id":2,"name":"Amelia Kirk"}]},{"id":"57db96f4d5cae409054d3a5b","name":{"first":"Dickson","last":"Moses"},"company":"VISUALIX","email":"[email protected]","friends":[{"id":0,"name":"Patty Carr"},{"id":1,"name":"Bowers Wilkerson"},{"id":2,"name":"Fox Kidd"}]},{"id":"57db96f42215bea719d83036","name":{"first":"Kerr","last":"Gray"},"company":"TUBESYS","email":"[email protected]","friends":[{"id":0,"name":"Rose Pierce"},{"id":1,"name":"Matthews Moore"},{"id":2,"name":"Brenda Ayala"}]},{"id":"57db96f435d0f064afc90768","name":{"first":"Elsie","last":"Dejesus"},"company":"KLUGGER","email":"[email protected]","friends":[{"id":0,"name":"Gina Cruz"},{"id":1,"name":"Nieves Carrillo"},{"id":2,"name":"Chandler Sanford"}]},{"id":"57db96f4597631fffff36b6b","name":{"first":"Chan","last":"Mcdaniel"},"company":"AQUACINE","email":"[email protected]","friends":[{"id":0,"name":"Hodge Sweeney"},{"id":1,"name":"Sweet Burnett"},{"id":2,"name":"Lynn Hunter"}]}],
 filter = ['company', 'friends.name'],
needles = ["sweet","rose"],
 result = searchFor(hay,needles,filter);
console.log(result);

If you are going to mutate Object.prototype then consider Object defineProperty. — Xotic750
– Xotic750, Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 18:33

Xotic750 · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-21 00:12:38Z

For your specific haystack and filter, without recursion, and using ES6.

function customGetValues(object, path) {
  path = path.split('.');
  const last = path.pop();
  return path.length ? object[path].map(v => v[last]) : [object[last]];
}

function searchFor(needle, haystack, filter) {
  return filter.some(f => customGetValues(haystack, f).some(v => v.includes(needle)));
}

const hay = [{
  "id": "57db96f4acfaec3218383063",
  "name": {
    "first": "Nora",
    "last": "Cooke"
  },
  "company": "MITROC",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "friends": [{
    "id": 0,
    "name": "West Duke"
  }, {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Williams Kelley"
  }, {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Amelia Kirk"
  }]
}, {
  "id": "57db96f4d5cae409054d3a5b",
  "name": {
    "first": "Dickson",
    "last": "Moses"
  },
  "company": "VISUALIX",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "friends": [{
    "id": 0,
    "name": "Patty Carr"
  }, {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Bowers Wilkerson"
  }, {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Fox Kidd"
  }]
}, {
  "id": "57db96f42215bea719d83036",
  "name": {
    "first": "Kerr",
    "last": "Gray"
  },
  "company": "TUBESYS",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "friends": [{
    "id": 0,
    "name": "Rose Pierce"
  }, {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Matthews Moore"
  }, {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Brenda Ayala"
  }]
}, {
  "id": "57db96f435d0f064afc90768",
  "name": {
    "first": "Elsie",
    "last": "Dejesus"
  },
  "company": "KLUGGER",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "friends": [{
    "id": 0,
    "name": "Gina Cruz"
  }, {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Nieves Carrillo"
  }, {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Chandler Sanford"
  }]
}, {
  "id": "57db96f4597631fffff36b6b",
  "name": {
    "first": "Chan",
    "last": "Mcdaniel"
  },
  "company": "AQUACINE",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "friends": [{
    "id": 0,
    "name": "Hodge Sweeney"
  }, {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Sweet Burnett"
  }, {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Lynn Hunter"
  }]
}];

const filter = ['company', 'friends.name'];
console.log('Sweet', hay.map(element => searchFor('Sweet', element, filter)));
console.log('Rose', hay.map(element => searchFor('Rose', element, filter)));

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