jquery or javascript how to find if an array contains an object and that object has a name with a specified value

Question

I am trying to build an array of objects to save a menu's state in a cookie but it is not updating because it is not finding the proper index containing the object I need to update visibility for. What am I doing wrong and/or can you point me in the right direction?

$(document).ready(function() {
    var menu = new Array();
    $("#vertical-nav .head").click(function() {
        var c = $(this).next().attr('name');
        $(this).next().slideToggle("slow", function() {
            if ( $(this).next().is(':visible') ) {
                menu.push({
                    name: c,
                    visible: true,
                });
            } else {
                var index = $.inArray(c, menu);
                console.log("INDEX: " + index);
                menu[index] = { name: c, visible:false };
            }
        });
        console.log(menu);
    });
});

This is what I ended up with:

$(document).ready(function() {
    var menu = new Array();
    if ( $.cookie('menu') ) {
        var items = JSON.parse($.cookie('menu'));
        for ( var item in items ) {
            if ( items[item].visible ) {
                $("div[name='" + items[item].name + "']").show();
            }
            menu.push(items[item]);
        }
    }

    $("#vertical-nav .head").click(function() {
        var c = $(this).next().attr('name');
        if ( $(this).next().is(":visible") ) {
            hide(this, c);
        } else {
            show(this, c);
        }
    });

    function show(obj, c) {
        $(obj).next().slideDown('slow', function() {
            var elementExists = false;
            if ( menu.length > 0 ) {
                for ( var item in menu ) {
                    if ( menu[item].name == c ) {
                        elementExists = true;
                        menu[item].visible = true;
                    }
                }
            }
            if ( !elementExists ) {
                menu.push({
                    name: c,
                    visible: true,
                });
            }
            $.cookie('menu', JSON.stringify(menu));
        });
    }

    function hide(obj, c) {
        $(obj).next().slideUp('slow', function() {
            if ( menu.length > 0 ) {
                for ( var item in menu ) {
                    if ( menu[item].name == c ) {
                        menu[item].visible = false;
                    }
                }
            }
            $.cookie('menu', JSON.stringify(menu));
        });
    }
});

I dont have time to write up an example at the moment, but check out jQuery's grep function, it most likely contains what you are looking for: api.jquery.com/jQuery.grep — Slugge
– Slugge, Commented Apr 18, 2014 at 18:09
console.log(menu) at the end is happening before your if statement that modifies menu. Stick it inside a setTimeout with a 5 second delay and you'll see what i mean. — user400654
– user400654, Commented Apr 18, 2014 at 18:14

MaKR · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-18 19:03:14Z

1

You could easily do this:

if (menu.length > 0) {
    for (var item in menu) {
        if (menu[item].name=="some text") alert("Found it!");
    }
}

What I would consider is instead of [{name: "item"; visible: true}] is switch to a key/value pair. You can then use {"item": true}, but this is limited to only storing the visible value and no extra info can be stored in the key. To solve this, try {"item": {visible: true}}. Here's an example of detection in JS using this approach:

if (menu.length > 0) {
    for (var item in menu) {
        var strVisible="hidden";
        if (menu[item].visible==true) strVisible="visible";
        alert(item+" is "+strVisible);
    }
}

edited Apr 18, 2014 at 19:03

answered Apr 18, 2014 at 18:39

MaKR

1,9122 gold badges17 silver badges31 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

jquery or javascript how to find if an array contains an object and that object has a name with a specified value

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related