Javascript alert not working possibly due to array syntax

Question

this is my first time trying to incorporate an array into my javascript code. I am using this with a form that contains a text input in which only the colors Blue, Yellow, Gray, Orange or Pink can be submitted, otherwise there should be an alert. Clearly I have made some error as my values are not being picked up...anything can be entered into the input #color and the form can still be submitted, no alert ever populates regardless of what I enter. Code is below. Thank you.

    }   
  // Verifies Colors 
  var colors = ["Blue", "Yellow", "Gray", "Orange", "Pink"];
      if ($('#color').val() != colors) {
          alert("These are not the right colors!");
          return false;       
        }
 return true;
}

Can you post the whole function? If it's not too large of course. There are brackets here that don't have any meaning. — Kyle Muir
– Kyle Muir, Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 23:16
You're comparing a single element's value to an entire Array of "possible" colors. You need iterate through the colors and see if any of them are being used. If so, return a true and all is well, else return a false. — DevlshOne
– DevlshOne, Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 23:18

Rafael Barros · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-30 23:16:22Z

1

try

if(colors.indexOf($("#color").val()) == -1 ){
    alert("These are not the right colors!");
    return false;
}

[edit] This is an assumption, I think #colors is a input type="text", or a select, in either case, I would suggest to pay attention to the capitalization of words, considering that the input might be all lowercase or all uppercase or a MiX oF BoTh.

answered Sep 30, 2013 at 23:16

Rafael Barros

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1 Comment

Zipotontic Over a year ago

Thank you very much Rafael! This works perfectly and I appreciate your point about variations on input. I will definitely have to address that somehow. Regards, Jenny (zipotontic)

asafreedman · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-30 23:32:40Z

1

Since you're already using jquery.

var colors = ['blue', 'red', 'whatever'];
if ($.inArray($("#color").val(), colors) < 0) {
    alert("These are not the right colors!");
    return false;
}

To Rafael's, and Kyle's, point though jquery will use indexOf if it can, from the jquery source

inArray: function( elem, arr, i ) {
    var len;

    if ( arr ) {
        if ( core_indexOf ) {
            return core_indexOf.call( arr, elem, i );
        }

        len = arr.length;
        i = i ? i < 0 ? Math.max( 0, len + i ) : i : 0;

        for ( ; i < len; i++ ) {
            // Skip accessing in sparse arrays
            if ( i in arr && arr[ i ] === elem ) {
                return i;
            }
        }
    }

    return -1;
}

Where core_indexOf is an alias for array.indexOf

core_indexOf = core_deletedIds.indexOf

edited Sep 30, 2013 at 23:32

answered Sep 30, 2013 at 23:19

asafreedman

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4 Comments

asafreedman Over a year ago

Had to edit it. Less than zero is false, not greater than -1 (What I had originally). Check out jQuery docs api.jquery.com/jQuery.inArray

Kyle Muir Over a year ago

might be worth noting that using indexOf is quicker than using $.inArray if the browser supports it. See this SO post: stackoverflow.com/questions/1883663/should-i-use-jquery-inarray

asafreedman Over a year ago

Any JS native function is probably faster than <library name here>. This was just the fastest thing I could come up with and I was uncertain if indexOf worked like that. The only example I found was w3c and for string manipulation.

Franco Over a year ago

I would like to add that indexOf is not supported in IE8. Casually, today I had a problem with that at work.

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