How to check if a string is a substring of any element in an array

Question

I have an array

var months = ["January", "February", "March", "April", \
    "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", \
    "November", "December"];

I have strings like "Nov", "October", "Jun", "June", "Sept", "Sep" etc. The point is, the string can be a substring of one of the months.

What is the best way to compare the string to be a substring of the array elements? How do I find out the index of the month?

I am looking at javascript/jQuery.

I know I can just loop through the array checking against each element using search and break when found. I want something better.

You can use Array#forEach but ultimately you'll need to loop through the array. — John Dvorak
– John Dvorak, Commented Dec 24, 2012 at 18:53
What's wrong with iterating over each item in the array and making the comparison? What do you mean by "better"? Shorter code? More efficient? — Andrew Whitaker
– Andrew Whitaker, Commented Dec 24, 2012 at 18:56

Chris Doggett · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-24 18:58:40Z

5

var month_index = function(target) {
        target = target.toLocaleLowerCase();
        return jQuery.inArray(true, jQuery.map(months, function(s) {
            return s.toLocaleLowerCase().indexOf(target) > -1;
        }))
    };

var index_of_october = month_index("oct");

answered Dec 24, 2012 at 18:58

Chris Doggett

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3 Comments

Chris Doggett Over a year ago

@flem: indexOf looks for a substring and returns the index if found, -1 if not. Also, updated it to be locale-sensitive and case-insensitive.

ATOzTOA Over a year ago

What is the output of this?

Chris Doggett Over a year ago

@ATOzTOA: index_of_october is 9. Try it out in Firebug's console.

goat · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-24 19:13:29Z

2

var  substr = 'nov', months = ["december", "november", "feb"];

var index = months.indexOf( months.filter(function(v){ return v.indexOf(substr) >= 0;})[0]);
alert(index)

http://jsfiddle.net/KeMe9/

answered Dec 24, 2012 at 19:13

goat

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Comments

HMarioD · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-24 19:11:06Z

0

Put your array items in lower case

var txt = "Sep";
var found = false;
txt = txt.toLowerCase();
  for (var i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
    if (months[i].indexOf(txt) > -1) {
        found = true;
        break;
  }
}

answered Dec 24, 2012 at 19:11

HMarioD

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