Check if object value exists within a Javascript array of objects and if not add a new object to array

Question

If I have the following array of objects:

[ { id: 1, username: 'fred' }, { id: 2, username: 'bill' }, { id: 2, username: 'ted' } ]

Is there a way to loop through the array to check whether a particular username value already exists and if it does do nothing, but if it doesn't to add a new object to the array with said username (and new ID)?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I've assumed that ids are meant to be unique here. some is a great function for checking the existence of things in arrays:

function checkAndAdd(name) {
  var id = arr.length + 1;
  var found = arr.some(function (el) {
    return el.username === name;
  });
  if (!found) { arr.push({ id: id, username: name }); }
}

Fiddle

Answer 2

Accepted answer can also be written in following way using arrow function on .some

 function checkAndAdd(name) {
     var id = arr.length + 1;
     var found = arr.some((el) => {
           return el.username === name;
     });
     if (!found) { arr.push({ id: id, username: name }); }
 }

Answer 3

This small snippets works for me..

const arrayOfObject = [{ id: 1, name: 'john' }, {id: 2, name: 'max'}];

const checkUsername = obj => obj.name === 'max';

console.log(arrayOfObject.some(checkUsername))

Answer 4

Native functions of array are sometimes 3X - 5X times slower than normal loops. Plus native functions wont work in all the browsers so there is a compatibility issues.

My Code:

<script>
  var obj = [];

  function checkName(name) {
    // declarations
    var flag = 0;
    var len = obj.length;   
    var i = 0;
    var id = 1;

    // looping array
    for (i; i < len; i++) {
        // if name matches
        if (name == obj[i]['username']) {
            flag = 1;
            break;
        } else {
            // increment the id by 1
            id = id + 1;
        }
    }

    // if flag = 1 then name exits else push in array
    if (flag == 0) {
      // new entry push in array        
      obj.push({'id':id, 'username': name});
    }
  }
  // function end

  checkName('abc');
</script>

This way you can achieve result faster.

Note: I have not checked if parameter passed is empty or not, if you want you can put a check on it or write a regular expression for particular validation.

Answer 5

The Best Practice is like this.

var arr = ["a","b","c","d"];
console.log(arr.includes("a")); //---- true;
console.log(arr.includes("k")); //---- false;
console.log(arr.includes("c")); //---- true;

Answer 6

I think that, this is the shortest way of addressing this problem. Here I have used ES6 arrow function with .filter to check the existence of newly adding username.

var arr = [{
    id: 1,
    username: 'fred'
}, {
    id: 2,
    username: 'bill'
}, {
    id: 3,
    username: 'ted'
}];

function add(name) {
    var id = arr.length + 1;        
            if (arr.filter(item=> item.username == name).length == 0){
            arr.push({ id: id, username: name });
        }
}

add('ted');
console.log(arr);

Link to Fiddle

Answer 7

You could prototype your array to make it more modular, try something like this

    Array.prototype.hasElement = function(element) {
        var i;
        for (i = 0; i < this.length; i++) {
            if (this[i] === element) {
                return i; //Returns element position, so it exists
            }
        }

        return -1; //The element isn't in your array
    };

And you can use it as:

 yourArray.hasElement(yourArrayElement)

Answer 8

I like Andy's answer, but the id isn't going to necessarily be unique, so here's what I came up with to create a unique ID also. Can be checked at jsfiddle too. Please note that arr.length + 1 may very well not guarantee a unique ID if anything had been removed previously.

var array = [ { id: 1, username: 'fred' }, { id: 2, username: 'bill' }, { id: 3, username: 'ted' } ];
var usedname = 'bill';
var newname = 'sam';

// don't add used name
console.log('before usedname: ' + JSON.stringify(array));
tryAdd(usedname, array);
console.log('before newname: ' + JSON.stringify(array));
tryAdd(newname, array);
console.log('after newname: ' + JSON.stringify(array));

function tryAdd(name, array) {
    var found = false;
    var i = 0;
    var maxId = 1;
    for (i in array) {
        // Check max id
        if (maxId <= array[i].id)
            maxId = array[i].id + 1;

        // Don't need to add if we find it
        if (array[i].username === name)
            found = true;
    }

    if (!found)
        array[++i] = { id: maxId, username: name };
}

Answer 9

It's rather trivial to check for existing username:

var arr = [{ id: 1, username: 'fred' }, 
  { id: 2, username: 'bill'}, 
  { id: 3, username: 'ted' }];

function userExists(username) {
  return arr.some(function(el) {
    return el.username === username;
  }); 
}

console.log(userExists('fred')); // true
console.log(userExists('bred')); // false

But it's not so obvious what to do when you have to add a new user to this array. The easiest way out - just pushing a new element with id equal to array.length + 1:

function addUser(username) {
  if (userExists(username)) {
    return false; 
  }
  arr.push({ id: arr.length + 1, username: username });
  return true;
}

addUser('fred'); // false
addUser('bred'); // true, user `bred` added

It will guarantee the IDs uniqueness, but will make this array look a bit strange if some elements will be taken off its end.