Search code examples
javascriptarraysgoogle-apps-scriptstring-matchingindexof

Google Apps Script to obtain the index if any of the words on a string match another string?

I have a long list of roles obtained from a sheet range stored as strings in an array, to give an example the array looks something like this:

arr1 = ["football manager","hockey coach", "fb player","fb coach","footballer"];

and I have another array in which I have a small list of tags

arr2 = ["football","fb", "footballer","hockey","rugby"];

I am trying to match the roles of the first array to the tags on the second one.

I have been trying to do this by looping through and obtaining the index of the matched row:

for(let i in arr1){
arr2.findIndex(s => s.indexOf(arr1[i]) >= 0);
}

But this only works for "footballer" as it is an exact match, I need for all of the partial matches to be classified as well.

Solution

  • Use following function to find indexes of tags (from arr2 array) that match values from arr1.

    Follow code comments for detailed explanation.

    function matchTagIndexes()
{
  // TODO replace with your values
  arr1 = ["football manager","hockey coach", "fb player","fb coach","footballer"];

  // TODO replace with your tags
  arr2 = ["football","fb", "footballer","hockey","rugby"];

  // for all tags create regex objects
  // regex searches for any match that have `tag` surrounded with word (\b) boundaries 
  // see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions/Cheatsheet#boundary-type_assertions
  const arr2Regexes = arr2.map(tag => new RegExp(`\\b${tag}\\b`, 'i'));

  // loop arr1 values as val
  arr1.map(val => 
    // for each arr2 regex match val
    arr2Regexes.forEach((regex, i) => 
      // if it is matched, log value from arr1 array, matched tag name and tag's index in arr2 array
      val.match(regex) && console.log(`"${val}" matches tag "${arr2[i]}" which has index ${i}`)
    )
  );
}

    Result:

    time status message
    8:46:35 PM Notice Execution started
    8:46:35 PM Info "football manager" matches tag "football" which has index 0
    8:46:35 PM Info "hockey coach" matches tag "hockey" which has index 3
    8:46:35 PM Info "fb player" matches tag "fb" which has index 1
    8:46:35 PM Info "fb coach" matches tag "fb" which has index 1
    8:46:35 PM Info "footballer" matches tag "footballer" which has index 2
    8:46:36 PM Notice Execution completed

    Reference: