Search through JavaScript object using a whitelist/filterlist

I am trying to build a small search function where I can search through some JavaScript objects even if there are arrays in it. I got it working but I would like to ask if someone can find a better approach than the one I made. Also, I assume I have some cases I did not think of.

My current search function looks as follows:

function searchFor(needle, haystack, filter, inside){
    if (inside == undefined) inside = 1;
    if (filter){
        for (var c = 0; c  0){
                        for (var i = 0; i < obj.length; i++) {
                            var result = searchFor(needle, obj[i], [splittedFilter[inside]], inside+1);
                            if (result) return true;
                        }
                    } else if( typeof obj == "object"){
                        var result = searchFor(needle, obj, [splittedFilter[inside]], inside+1);
                        if (result) return true;
                    } else {
                        if (obj.toLowerCase().indexOf(needle.toLowerCase()) != -1){
                            return true;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return false
}

The filterlist:

var filter = ['company', 'friends.name'];

The haystack:

```
var hay = [
{
"id": "57db96f4acfaec3218383063",
"name": {
"first": "Nora",
"last": "Cooke"
},
"company": "MITROC",
"email": "nora.cooke@mitroc.com",
"friends": [
{
"id": 0,
"name": "West Duke"
},
{
"id": 1,
"name": "Williams Kelley"
},
{
"id": 2,
"name": "Amelia Kirk"
}
]
},
{
"id": "57db96f4d5cae409054d3a5b",
"name": {
"first": "Dickson",
"last": "Moses"
},
"company": "VISUALIX",
"email": "dickson.moses@visualix.org",
"friends": [
{
"id": 0,
"name": "Patty Carr"
},
{
"id": 1,
"name": "Bowers W

You could use a simplified version for lookup all needed values and the check against the needle.



function search(needle, haystack, filter) {
return filter.some(function (f) {
function iter(o, i) {
var item;

if (!(ff[i] in o)) {
return false;
}

item = o[ff[i]];
i++;

if (i === ff.length) {
return item.indexOf(needle) !== -1;
}

if (Array.isArray(item)) {
return item.some(function (a) {
return iter(a, i);
});
}
return iter(item, i);
}

var ff = f.split('.');

return iter(haystack, 0);
});
}

var filter = ['company', 'friends.name'],
hay = [{ "id": "57db96f4acfaec3218383063", "name": { "first": "Nora", "last": "Cooke" }, "company": "MITROC", "email": "nora.cooke@mitroc.com", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "West Duke" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Williams Kelley" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Amelia Kirk" }] }, { "id": "57db96f4d5cae409054d3a5b", "name": { "first": "Dickson", "last": "Moses" }, "company": "VISUALIX", "email": "dickson.moses@visualix.org", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Patty Carr" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Bowers Wilkerson" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Fox Kidd" }] }, { "id": "57db96f42215bea719d83036", "name": { "first": "Kerr", "last": "Gray" }, "company": "TUBESYS", "email": "kerr.gray@tubesys.io", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Rose Pierce" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Matthews Moore" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Brenda Ayala" }] }, { "id": "57db96f435d0f064afc90768", "name": { "first": "Elsie", "last": "Dejesus" }, "company": "KLUGGER", "email": "elsie.dejesus@klugger.us", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Gina Cruz" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Nieves Carrillo" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Chandler Sanford" }] }, { "id": "57db96f4597631fffff36b6b", "name": { "first": "Chan", "last": "Mcdaniel" }, "company": "AQUACINE", "email": "chan.mcdaniel@aquacine.name", "friends": [{ "id": 0, "name": "Hodge Sweeney" }, { "id": 1, "name": "Sweet Burnett" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Lynn Hunter" }] }];

console.log(hay.map(function (a) {
return search('Sweet', a, filter);
}));

console.log(hay.map(function (a) {
return search('Rose', a, filter);
}));
.as-console-wrapper { max-height: 100% !important; top: 0; }

StackExchange Code Review Q#141950, answer score: 3