CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptarraysmultidimensional-array
J Woodright
J Woodright

Reputation: 63

Parsing through Array of multidimensional arrays JS and logging the indecies

I have three multidimensional arrays. The function findIndex, will go through one of the arrays, if I set the last line to findIndex(arrayTwo), and spit out the item and index variable telling me where the variable idName is.

Example: if I call findIndex(arrayTwo), it will console log item: 2 | index: 1 http://jsfiddle.net/vap03jfL/

The problem is that when i run the function findIndex(arrayCombine) it will only search through the first two levels of the new array set. I know I need to search one level deeper and return a value for the now top most array, but I haven't found what I need. I have also read that the way I am doing this may not be the best. to begin with.

var arrayOne = [
    ["a", "b", "c", "d"],
    ["e", "f", "g", "h"],
    ["i", "j", "k", "l"],
    ["m", "n", "o", "p"]
];

var arrayTwo = [
    ["Z1", "Y1", "X2", "W2"],
    ["V2", "U3", "T3", "S3"],
    ["R3", "Q3", "P3", "O3"],
    ["N4", "M2", "L2", "K2"]
];

var arrayThree = [
    ["Z", "Y", "X", "W"],
    ["V", "U", "T", "S"],
    ["R", "Q", "P", "O"],
    ["N", "M", "L", "K"]
];

var arrayCombine = [
    [arrayOne],
    [arrayTwo],
    [arrayThree]
]


function findIndex(arrayArg) {
    idName = "Q3";

    for (var item in arrayArg) {
        console.log("item: " + item);
        if (arrayArg[item].indexOf(idName)) {
            var index = arrayArg[item].indexOf(idName);
            console.log("index: " + index);
            if (index != -1) {
                console.log("item found: " + item);
                console.log("index found: " + index);
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

findIndex(arrayCombine);

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 165

Answers (3)

J Woodright
J Woodright

Reputation: 63

Here is the solution that I came up with. http://jsfiddle.net/vap03jfL/7/

Problem 1: the nested array was written incorrectly, I shouldn't have bracketed the variable being called in the nested array, it should have been written.

var arrayCombine = [arrayOne, arrayTwo, arrayThree];

Problem 2: I needed to parse another level.. this is a slightly different strategy but works with jagged arrays too.

function findIndex(arrayArg) { idName = "Q3";

for (var arrayId = 0; arrayId < arrayArg.length; arrayId++) {
    for (var item = 0; item < arrayArg[arrayId].length; item++) {
        var index = arrayArg[arrayId][item].indexOf(idName);
        if (index >= 0) {
            console.log("arrayId " + arrayId + " | item: " + item + " | Found Index! " + index);

        }
    }
}

}

Upvotes: 0

Pierre Tasci
Pierre Tasci

Reputation: 450

function findIndex(arrayArg, idName) {
    for (var i in arrayArg) {
        console.log("item: " + item);
        var item = arrayArg[i];
        if(item instanceof Array) {
            if(findIndex(item, idName)) {
               return true;
            }
        } else if (item.indexOf(idName)) {
            var index = item.indexOf(idName);
            console.log("index: " + index);
            if (index != -1) {
                console.log("item found: " + item);
            }
        }
    }
}

Upvotes: 0

kellanburket
kellanburket

Reputation: 12853

You need to make your function recursive to handle a deep search.

function findIndex(arrayArg, idName) {

    for (var item in arrayArg) {
        if (typeof arrayArg[item] == "object" && arrayArg[item] != null) {
            if (findIndex(arrayArg[item], idName)) {
                return true
            }
        } else {
            var index = arrayArg[item].indexOf(idName)
            if (index != -1) {
                console.log("item found: " + item);
                console.log("index found: " + index);
                return true;
            } else { 
                console.log(arrayArg[item] + " != " + idName);
            }        
        }
    }
    return false;
}

findIndex(arrayCombine, "Q3");

Instead of nesting if statements inside of loops inside of if statements, you can use the power of recursivity to do a deep search with no upper limit on the number of nested arrays or objects you are permitted to scan.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions