How to check if value exists in this JavaScript array?

Question

I have a JavaScript array, where each new item added to the array gets the next incremental number. An example would be as follows (I hope Im writing this correctly):

ArrayofPeople[0] = [{"id": "529", "name": "Bob"}];
ArrayofPeople[1] = [{"id": "820", "name": "Dave"}];
ArrayofPeople[2] = [{"id": "235", "name": "John"}];

The array is named ArrayofPeople, storing multiple data points for each person.

I need to know if an element with id of 820 exists in the array or not. How would this be done?

Answer 1

Something like this:

function in_array(array, id) {
    for(var i=0;i<array.length;i++) {
        return (array[i][0].id === id)
    }
    return false;
}

var result = in_array(ArrayofPeople, 235);

Answer 2

You should iterate over the array and manually check if you have a matching id:

function getPersonById(id){
    for(var i=0,l=ArrayofPeople.length;i<l;i++)
       if(ArrayofPeople[i][0].id == id)
           return ArrayofPeople[i];
    return null;
}

Of course, this is pretty inefficient. I suggest you store your objects into an associative array (a.k.a. an object) indexed by the person's id. Then, the access to a person with a certain id is immediate since objects are nothing than hash-tables:

ArrayofPeople = {};
ArrayofPeople[529] = {"id": "529", "name": "Bob"};
ArrayofPeople[820] = {"id": "820", "name": "Dave"};
ArrayofPeople[235] = {"id": "235", "name": "John"};

 function getPersonById(id){
   return id in ArrayofPeople
       ? ArrayofPeople[id]
       : null;
}