How to search for a child node inside an object and return relevant path if found?

Question

I am trying to create a function that can iterate through an object and match nodes names against a certain serach string, then if a match is found it should retrun the relevant path of the matching child node like "root/child/child/match"

This is what i've got so far:

function findNode (obj, str)
{
    var root = "root/", regx = new RegExp(str, "gi");
    function test(node) {return regx.test(node)};
    function isObject(obj) {return typeof(obj) == "object"}
    function hasSOs(obj) //check for existance of sub objects
    {
        if (isObject(obj)) for (var i in obj) if (isObject(obj[i])) return true;
        return false;
    }

    function searchDCs(obj) //search direct objects
    {
        for (var i in obj) if (test(i)) return i;
        return false;
    }

    function iterate(node)
    {
        if (searchDCs(node)) return root + searchDCs;
        else if (hasSOs(node))
        {
            for (var i in node)
            {
                if (isObject(node[i]))
                {
                    if (searchDCs(node[i])) return root + i + "/" + searchDCs(node[i]);
                    else 
                    {
                        if (iterate(node[i])) return root + i + "/" + iterate(node[i]);
                        else return false;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        else return false;
    }
    console.log(iterate(obj));
}

It doesn't seems to be working properly, any help would be appreciated.

Edit:

• I need it to return all search results not just the first match.
• I need it to iterate through sub arrays and return result like root/child/child[3]/match where [3] is the 3d child in the root.child.child <- array(0, 1, 2, {object}).

Answer 1

This is perhaps the most important part of my answer:

UnitTesting (and/or TDD) is perfect for this kind of stuff: It's isolated and you can subject your code with increasingly difficult inputs.

Such approach would continue to drive you forward while making sure that everything that used to work still works. Just tinkering with your code until 'it works' didn't get you there in this case...

The solution

(because it sounded like fun)

You couldn't really tell me what exactly the problem was, so I started anew :)

You edited your question.. I changed the code to get all occurences (not just the first one) but haven't implemented the specific syntax for Arrays.

function findNode2(obj, str) {
    var results = [],
        regx = new RegExp(str, "gi");

    function innerFind(obj, str, currentPath) {
        var propName,
            prop,
            result;

        for (propName in obj) {
            if (regx.test(propName)) {
                results.push(currentPath + propName + "/");
            }

            prop = obj[propName];
            if (typeof prop === "object") {
                innerFind(prop, str, currentPath + propName + "/");
            }
        }
    }

    if (typeof obj === "object") {
        innerFind(obj, str, "root/");
    }

    return results;
}

Update for Arrays:

function findNode2(obj, str) {
    var results = [],
        regx = new RegExp(str, "gi");

    function innerFind(obj, str, currentPath) {
        var i,
            propName,
            prop,
            result;

        if (toString.call(obj) === "[object Array]") {
            for (i = 0; i < obj.length; i++) {
                if (typeof obj[i] === "object") {
                    innerFind(obj[i], str, currentPath + "[" + i + "]/");
                }
            }

        } else {
            for (propName in obj) {
                if (regx.test(propName)) {
                    results.push(currentPath + propName + "/");
                }

                prop = obj[propName];
                if (typeof prop === "object") {
                    innerFind(prop, str, currentPath + propName + "/");
                }
            }
        }
    }

    if (typeof obj === "object") {
        innerFind(obj, str, "root/");
    }

    return results;
}