fuzzy-predicate

Filter an array of objects (or an array of just about anything) down to only include those objects with properties somewhat matching the provided query.

1var fuzzy = require("fuzzy-predicate");
2	
3var data = [
4	{
5		name: "Dan Smith"
6	},
7	{
8		name: "Issac Long"
9	}
10];
11	
12var result = data.filter(fuzzy("dan"));
13	
14console.log(result);
15// [{
16// 		name: "Dan Smith"
17// }]

Installation

npm install fuzzy-predicate --save

Usage

1. Import the library

1var fuzzy = require("fuzzy-predicate");

2. Generate a predicate

1// where "apple" is the data you're looking for
2var predicate = fuzzy("apple");

3. Use the predicate to filter an array

1var result = myArray.filter(predicate);

result now contains only the elements in myArray that somewhat match the query ("apple").

myArray could have been an array of strings, an array of numbers, an array of objects, or even an array of arrays. fuzzy-predicate will recursively search through all the data trying to find something that matches the original query.

Example

fuzzy-predicate is an ideal tool for using user input to filter a response from a Web service. Let's say you have an array of objects that each represent a user and you wanted to find user(s) named "John":

1var fuzzy = require("fuzzy-predicate");
2	
3var data = [
4	{
5		id: "7128792",
6		name: "John Doe",
7		mail: "jdoe@example.com",
8		twitter: "john_doe"
9	},
10	{
11		id: "1203922",
12		name: "Jane Doe",
13		mail: "jane.doe@example.com",
14		twitter: "grannysmithapple"
15	},
16	{
17		id: "9189701",
18		name: "Dan Smith",
19		mail: "dan.smith@example.com",
20		twitter: "javascripz",
21	}
22];
23
24var result = data.filter(fuzzy("john"));

In this scenario, result would be an array containing a single element:

1{
2	id: "7128792",
3	name: "John Doe",
4	mail: "jdoe@example.com",
5	twitter: "john_doe"
6}

But what if the query was "smith"?

1var result = data.filter(fuzzy("smith"));

result would contain two elements:

1{
2	id: "1203922",
3	name: "Jane Doe",
4	mail: "jane.doe@example.com",
5	twitter: "grannysmithapple"
6},
7{
8	id: "9189701",
9	name: "Dan Smith",
10	mail: "dan.smith@example.com",
11	twitter: "javascripz",
12}

When searching for "smith," fuzzy-predicate found a match in the Twitter handle for Jane, and the name (and email) property for Dan.

Perhaps we only wanted to find people with a name matching "Smith":

1var result = data.filter(fuzzy("smith", ["name"]));

This time, result would contain only one element:

1{
2	id: "9189701",
3	name: "Dan Smith",
4	mail: "dan.smith@example.com",
5	twitter: "javascripz",
6}

Documentation

fuzzy(query, keys)
Returns a filter predicate (function) suitable for passing to Array.prototype.filter.

• query: The filter query to use to reduce an array down to objects matching the query. This can be a string or a number.
• keys: Optionally restrict the search to a set of keys; only applied when filtering objects. This can be a string containing the name of a single key, or an array of keys.

Normalization

What makes this a "fuzzy" filter is that it is looking for values that somewhat match the query—not exact matches.

When comparing strings, the needle (the query) and the haystack value are both normalized following these rules:

1. Convert the string to a lowercase string
2. Remove all non-word characters (characters matching the \W regex and underscores)

Then, instead of checking string equality, it checks to see if the haystack value contains the needle value (using indexOf). If it does, it's considered a match.

This process only applies when comparing strings; numbers must be exactly equal to be considered a match.

License

See LICENSE.

Contributing

I welcome pull requests containing bug fixes and documentation improvements for fuzzy-predicate. Be sure to run the tests before submitting any changes.

And although I consider fuzzy-predicate to be mostly feature complete, I welcome discussion on how it could be a more useful tool (e.g. if callers could customize how normalization worked).