jquery/javascript: arrays

Question

I am a begginer with Javascript/jQuery and I hope someone can help me with the following:

I have a simple form (7 questions; 3 radio buttons/answers per question - except for question 5 with 8 possible choices ) and based on the selected answers, when user clicks on 'view-advice' I want to display relevant advices (combination of 38 possible advices) below the form. I have given "a", "b", "c",... values to radio buttons and I am collecting them in an array. The part where the script alerts the array works ok. I can't figure out the part where I display the advices depending on the values in the array.

I'd appreciate your help! Thanks!

Here is the code:


var laArray = new Array();

$('.button-show-advice').click(function(){

    $(":radio:checked").each(function(i){
        laArray[i] = $(this).val();
        if (laArray == ["a","d","g","j","m","u"]) {
        $("#advice-container, #advice1, #advice2").show(); // something is wrong here :(
            };
    })
    alert(laArray) // testing to see if it works

})

It is better practice to declare an array as: var laArray = []; — Jeremy Elbourn, Oct 19 '10 at 14:58

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 19 '10 at 14:55

0

Rather than test for equality, I think the better means is to check whether or not each of your values are in the array using the jQuery inArray function.

Granted, this is just the beginning of code. You could probably write a function to shore this up, like so.

function radioSelected(val) {
  return ($.inArray(val, laArray) != -1);
}

and adapt it to your existing script.

answered Oct 19 '10 at 14:55

villecoder

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i have tried to add the HTML of the form, but I got an error saying I can't add that much without credits.... – tschardak Oct 19 '10 at 14:58
thank you for the reaction, villecoder. unfortunately, to a beginner like me you have to draw it ;) the way I thought it would work the best is if I compare the choices against all possible of arrays/all possible combinations of selected radios, rather than check one by one. because every choice has too many advices that go with it... – tschardak Oct 19 '10 at 15:03

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '10 at 14:56

You cannot compare arrays this way you should probably either compare each element of the 2 arrays

function compare_array(array1,array2) {
    var i;
    for(i=0;i=array1.length;i++) {
        if(array1[i]==array2[i]) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

or serialize the array in a comparable form ( comma separated string for example )

function compare_array(array1,array2) {
     return array1.join(",")==array2.join(",");
}

Compare with serializing, nice! +1 :) – nekman Oct 19 '10 at 15:06 — nekman, Oct 19 '10 at 15:06

nekman · Answer 3 · 2010-10-19T15:09:26.093

0

Would be nice to see the HTML code. But I guess you want to do something like this:

var laArray = [];
var compareValues = function(arr1, arr2) {
  $(arr1).each(function(index, el) {
   if(el !== arr2[index]) {
     return false;
   }
  });
  return true;
};

$('.button-show-advice').click(function(){
    $(":radio:checked").each(function(i){
        laArray.push($(this).val());        
    });
   if(compareValues(laArray,["a","d","g","j","m","u"])) {
      $("#advice-container, #advice1, #advice2").show();
   }  
});

EDIT: updated the code, forgot the }); ...

edited Oct 19 '10 at 15:09

answered Oct 19 '10 at 14:58

nekman

1,919
2
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I appreciate your help very much, Nisse! However, this solution didn't seem to work. since I can't post the HTML here I am not sure what I am doing wrong... – tschardak Oct 19 '10 at 15:12
I forgot the missing }); in the end of the each-loop. Try to copy the example again. – nekman Oct 19 '10 at 15:17
var a = [1,2,3]; var compareValues = function(arr1, arr2) { $(arr1).each(function(index, el) { if(el !== arr2[index]) { return false; } }); return true; }; compareValues(a, [1,2,3]); //true – nekman Oct 19 '10 at 15:18
excellent! your solution works :) thank you very much, Nisse! hold on, now comes even more ignorant question... if i need to repeat the below step (changing just the values and the elements to be shown): if(compareValues(laArray,["a","d","g","j","m","u"])) { $("#advice-container, #advice1, #advice2").show(); } ... would that be a horrible thing to do? – tschardak Oct 19 '10 at 15:19
If you can't post your HTML here, then insert all of your code to http://jsfiddle.net and submit the link here. – nekman Oct 19 '10 at 15:20
thanks again! but, I apologize, because I don't understand what to do with the two alerts I have now. ...still wondering if i can repeat the below step form your first solution and compare to ["b","d","g","j","m","u"]... etc (all possible cobminations> if(compareValues(laArray,["a","d","g","j","m","u"])) { $("#advice1, #advice2").show(); } – tschardak Oct 19 '10 at 15:45
i think i got it all wrong, still trying to implement your script but keep on getting stuck. any suggestions? now i am trying to figure out if the idea of checking each value with in Array is better solution in this case... – tschardak Oct 19 '10 at 17:45

jquery/javascript: arrays

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