search in nested array of objects js

Question

I have a nested array of objects and I'm trying to find a string inside of it. Once I find it I'd like to return the containing object. Here's my code:

const myArray = [{
 label: "Home",
 last: "odlir",
 children: [{
 label: "Home 1",
 last: "odlir1",
 children: [{
 label: "Home 2",
 last: "odlir2"
 }, {
 label: "Home 3",
 last: "odlir3"
 }]
 },
 {
 label: "Home 4",
 last: "odlir4",
 children: [{
 label: "Home 5",
 last: "odlir5"
 }, {
 label: "Home 6",
 last: "odlir6"
 }]
 }
 ]
 },
 {
 label: "dash",
 last: "gom"
 },
 {
 label: "principal",
 last: "asd"
 }
];
function contain(obj, string) {
 if (obj == null)
 return false;
 if (obj.last == string)
 return obj;
 if (typeof obj.children == 'undefined')
 return false;
 for (let i = 0; i < obj.children.length; i++) {
 if (contain(obj.children[i], string))
 return obj;
 }
 return false;
}
function getObject(array, string) {
 for (let i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
 if (contain(array[i], string)) {
 return array[i];
 }
 }
}
console.log('test', getObject(myArray, 'odlir6'));

I'm getting back the object I want, parent object and even grandfather. Here's is a stackblitz of this code: https://stackblitz.com/edit/js-hgchmx

• Nina Scholz: what do you want by arrays? the index or the outer array?
• Heretic Monkey: Does this answer your question? JavaScript recursive search in JSON object
• Rildo Gomez: @HereticMonkey Thanks i'm going to try that answer
• Rildo Gomez: @NinaScholz actually i want the object that contains the string i'm looking for

Answer 1

You could take a recursive approach and store the paren object for every nested call.

1. Declare result, later this variable contains the parent object.

2. Check if the given variable is not null but an object. Exit if not.

3. Iterate the values from the object with a short circuit and

   • check if the value is equal to the wanted string, then return with the assignment of the object.
   • otherwise return the result of the recursive call.

function getObject(object, string) {
 var result;
 if (!object || typeof object !== 'object') return;
 Object.values(object).some(v => {
 if (v === string) return result = object;
 return result = getObject(v, string);
 });
 return result;
}
const
 array = [{ label: "Home", last: "odlir", children: [{ label: "Home 1", last: "odlir1", children: [{ label: "Home 2", last: "odlir2" }, { label: "Home 3", last: "odlir3" }] }, { label: "Home 4", last: "odlir4", children: [{ label: "Home 5", last: "odlir5" }, { label: "Home 6", last: "odlir6" }] }] }, { label: "dash", last: "gom" }, { label: "principal", last: "asd" }];
console.log(getObject(array, 'odlir6'));

• Rildo Gomez: Thanks for your help this is almost what i want i'd like to get just { "label": "Home 6", "last": "odlir6" }
• Rildo Gomez: It works thank you however can you explain your code a litle?