[javascript] How to find first element of array matching a boolean condition in JavaScript?

I'm wondering if there's a known, built-in/elegant way to find the first element of a JS array matching a given condition. A C# equivalent would be List.Find.

So far I've been using a two-function combo like this:

// Returns the first element of an array that satisfies given predicate
Array.prototype.findFirst = function (predicateCallback) {
    if (typeof predicateCallback !== 'function') {
        return undefined;
    }

    for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        if (i in this && predicateCallback(this[i])) return this[i];
    }

    return undefined;
};

// Check if element is not undefined && not null
isNotNullNorUndefined = function (o) {
    return (typeof (o) !== 'undefined' && o !== null);
};

And then I can use:

var result = someArray.findFirst(isNotNullNorUndefined);

But since there are so many functional-style array methods in ECMAScript, perhaps there's something out there already like this? I imagine lots of people have to implement stuff like this all the time...

It should be clear by now that JavaScript offers no such solution natively; here are the closest two derivatives, the most useful first:

1. Array.prototype.some(fn) offers the desired behaviour of stopping when a condition is met, but returns only whether an element is present; it's not hard to apply some trickery, such as the solution offered by Bergi's answer.

2. Array.prototype.filter(fn)[0] makes for a great one-liner but is the least efficient, because you throw away N - 1 elements just to get what you need.

Traditional search methods in JavaScript are characterized by returning the index of the found element instead of the element itself or -1. This avoids having to choose a return value from the domain of all possible types; an index can only be a number and negative values are invalid.

Both solutions above don't support offset searching either, so I've decided to write this:

(function(ns) {
  ns.search = function(array, callback, offset) {
    var size = array.length;

    offset = offset || 0;
    if (offset >= size || offset <= -size) {
      return -1;
    } else if (offset < 0) {
      offset = size - offset;
    }

    while (offset < size) {
      if (callback(array[offset], offset, array)) {
        return offset;
      }
      ++offset;
    }
    return -1;
  };
}(this));

search([1, 2, NaN, 4], Number.isNaN); // 2
search([1, 2, 3, 4], Number.isNaN); // -1
search([1, NaN, 3, NaN], Number.isNaN, 2); // 3

A less elegant way that will throw all the right error messages (based on Array.prototype.filter) but will stop iterating on the first result is

function findFirst(arr, test, context) {
    var Result = function (v, i) {this.value = v; this.index = i;};
    try {
        Array.prototype.filter.call(arr, function (v, i, a) {
            if (test(v, i, a)) throw new Result(v, i);
        }, context);
    } catch (e) {
        if (e instanceof Result) return e;
        throw e;
    }
}

Then examples are

findFirst([-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3], function (e) {return e > 1 && e % 2;});
// Result {value: 3, index: 5}
findFirst([0, 1, 2, 3], 0);               // bad function param
// TypeError: number is not a function
findFirst(0, function () {return true;}); // bad arr param
// undefined
findFirst([1], function (e) {return 0;}); // no match
// undefined

It works by ending filter by using throw.

There is no built-in function in Javascript to perform this search.

If you are using jQuery you could do a jQuery.inArray(element,array).

Use findIndex as other previously written. Here's the full example:

function find(arr, predicate) {
    foundIndex = arr.findIndex(predicate);
    return foundIndex !== -1 ? arr[foundIndex] : null;
}

And usage is following (we want to find first element in array which has property id === 1).

var firstElement = find(arr, e => e.id === 1);

What about using filter and getting the first index from the resulting array?

var result = someArray.filter(isNotNullNorUndefined)[0];

Array.prototype.find() does just that, more info: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/find

As of ES 2015, Array.prototype.find() provides for this exact functionality.

For browsers that do not support this feature, the Mozilla Developer Network has provided a polyfill (pasted below):

if (!Array.prototype.find) {
  Array.prototype.find = function(predicate) {
    if (this === null) {
      throw new TypeError('Array.prototype.find called on null or undefined');
    }
    if (typeof predicate !== 'function') {
      throw new TypeError('predicate must be a function');
    }
    var list = Object(this);
    var length = list.length >>> 0;
    var thisArg = arguments[1];
    var value;

    for (var i = 0; i < length; i++) {
      value = list[i];
      if (predicate.call(thisArg, value, i, list)) {
        return value;
      }
    }
    return undefined;
  };
}

foundElement = myArray[myArray.findIndex(element => //condition here)];

If you're using underscore.js you can use its find and indexOf functions to get exactly what you want:

var index = _.indexOf(your_array, _.find(your_array, function (d) {
    return d === true;
}));

Documentation:

• http://underscorejs.org/#find
• http://underscorejs.org/#indexOf

Summary:

• For finding the first element in an array which matches a boolean condition we can use the ES6 find()
• find() is located on Array.prototype so it can be used on every array.
• find() takes a callback where a boolean condition is tested. The function returns the value (not the index!)

Example:

const array = [4, 33, 8, 56, 23];

const found = array.find(element => {
  return element > 50;
});

console.log(found);   //  56

As of ECMAScript 6, you can use Array.prototype.find for this. This is implemented and working in Firefox (25.0), Chrome (45.0), Edge (12), and Safari (7.1), but not in Internet Explorer or a bunch of other old or uncommon platforms.

For example, x below is 106:

const x = [100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109].find(function (el) {
    return el > 105;
});
console.log(x);

If you want to use this right now but need support for IE or other unsupporting browsers, you can use a shim. I recommend the es6-shim. MDN also offers a shim if for some reason you don't want to put the whole es6-shim into your project. For maximum compatibility you want the es6-shim, because unlike the MDN version it detects buggy native implementations of find and overwrites them (see the comment that begins "Work around bugs in Array#find and Array#findIndex" and the lines immediately following it).

I have got inspiration from multiple sources on the internet to derive into the solution below. Wanted to take into account both some default value and to provide a way to compare each entry for a generic approach which this solves.

Usage: (giving value "Second")

var defaultItemValue = { id: -1, name: "Undefined" };
var containers: Container[] = [{ id: 1, name: "First" }, { id: 2, name: "Second" }];
GetContainer(2).name;

Implementation:

class Container {
    id: number;
    name: string;
}

public GetContainer(containerId: number): Container {
  var comparator = (item: Container): boolean => {
      return item.id == containerId;
    };
    return this.Get<Container>(this.containers, comparator, this.defaultItemValue);
  }

private Get<T>(array: T[], comparator: (item: T) => boolean, defaultValue: T): T {
  var found: T = null;
  array.some(function(element, index) {
    if (comparator(element)) {
      found = element;
      return true;
    }
  });

  if (!found) {
    found = defaultValue;
  }

  return found;
}