Using JS/jQuery to do string search/fuzzy matching?

Question

entirely in JS, no server backend. I need to allow the user to search and then show a list of matched names. I'm using jQuery UI AutoComplete but need some JS to filter the results.

Given an Array of names:

Bob Hope
James Jones
Steve Jobs
Larry McBridge

Given a search term like Bo

How can I get just Bob Hope to return

Given a Search term like b:

How can I get all but James Jones?

Any simple JS for comparing two strings? Thanks

Answer 1

var names = ["Bob Hope","James Jones","Steve Jobs","Larry McBridge"]   
var query = "bo"
var results = $(names)
        .map(function(i,v){ 
            if(v.toLowerCase().indexOf(query.toLowerCase())!=-1){return v} 
        }).get()

// results is ["Bob Hope"]

Answer 2

Maybe I misunderstood you (given the complexity of the above answer), but I came up with this which uses jQuery. Every time a key is pressed (when the input has focus), it searches all li elements on the page and finds whether they contain the search term.

Here is the HTML:

<ul><li>Bob Hope</li>
<li>James Jones</li>
<li>Steve Jobs</li>
<li>Larry McBridge</li></ul><br>
Search: <input id="search" length="24" />

And here is your jQuery:

$("#search").keyup(function(){
    $("li").hide();
   var term = $(this).val();
    $("li:contains('" + term + "')").show();
});