How can I determine if an element is contained in an Array without looping?

Question

How can I check whether a particular element is inside an array? I don't want to manually write a loop for this; instead I want to use a JavaScript built-in function, maybe something equivalent to

new Array(0,1,2,3,6,9,12,15,18).Contains(5)  //return false
new Array(0,1,2,3,6,9,12,15,18).Contains(1)   //return true

Edit the question to make my intention clearer

Answer 1

There is no such method in javascript.

Some library (e.g. jquery) have similar method, but they use loops internally.

Answer 2

The Array object does have an indexOf function, that will return -1 if the object does not exist. However, IE does not support this function.

Regardless, how do you think it is going to locate the item under the scenes? It will have to loop! Just because there's a built-in function does not mean that it is magical.

Answer 3

You could also write an extension method, as explained in this thread.

Array.prototype.contains = function(obj) {
  var i = this.length;
  while (i--) {
    if (this[i] === obj) {
      return true;
    }
  }
  return false;
}
And now you can simply use the following:

alert([1, 2, 3].contains(2)); // => true
alert([1, 2, 3].contains('2')); // => false

Answer 4

As @Josh Stodola said, the indexOf function is what you need, but this function was introduced on JavaScript 1.6, for compatibility you can use this implementation from the Mozilla team, is exactly the one used in Firefox and SpiderMonkey:

if (!Array.prototype.indexOf)
{
  Array.prototype.indexOf = function(elt /*, from*/)
  {
    var len = this.length >>> 0;

    var from = Number(arguments[1]) || 0;
    from = (from < 0)
         ? Math.ceil(from)
         : Math.floor(from);
    if (from < 0)
      from += len;

    for (; from < len; from++)
    {
      if (from in this &&
          this[from] === elt)
        return from;
    }
    return -1;
  };
}

Source: MDC

Answer 5

Looks like a job for jQuery.inArray

inArray: function( elem, array ) {
 for ( var i = 0, length = array.length; i < length; i++ )
 // Use === because on IE, window == document
  if ( array[ i ] === elem )
   return i;

 return -1;
}

Answer 6

Ah, there is a way not to loop and it is pretty simple, people just do not think outside the box.

Array.prototype.contains = function(){     
    var joined = this.join("-~-");
    var re = new RegExp("(^|-~-)" + arguments[0] + "($|-~-)");   
    return joined.match(re) !== null;
}

var arr = ["a","b","c","d"];   
alert(arr.contains("a"));
alert(arr.contains("b"));
alert(arr.contains("c"));
alert(arr.contains("d"));
alert(arr.contains("e"));

Loop mom, no loops!