Need help with indexOf to retrieve an object from an array

Question

I am creating a search engine to loop through an array of objects containing student data:

var students = [ 
  { 
   name: 'Dave',
    track: 'Front End Development',
    achievements: 158,
    points: 14730
  },
 {
    name: 'Jody',
    track: 'iOS Development with Swift',
    achievements: '175',
    points: '16375'
  },
 {
    name: 'Jordan',
    track: 'PHP Development',
    achievements: '55',
    points: '2025'
  },
 {
    name: 'John',
    track: 'Learn WordPress',
    achievements: '40',
    points: '1950'
  },
{
    name: 'Trish',
    track: 'Rails Development',
    achievements: '5',
    points: '350'
}
];

I am using loops to search the information and print out student data that is searched for from a prompt command. I am stuck on my indexOf function. I recognize that I have this function within my for loop, however I need it to look through the object's "name: " value and find the index of that value for the code to run. Thanks for any tips!

//Problem: Cannot get indexOf function to run

var student;
var input = prompt('Type a name to search the student records. Or type "quit" to quit.').toLowerCase();

function print(message) {
  var outputDiv = document.getElementById('output');
  outputDiv.innerHTML = message;
} 

    for (i = 0; i < students.length; i += 0) {

      student = students[i];

      var index = student.indexOf[input];

      if (index > -1) {

      message += '<h2>Student: ' + student.name + '</h2>';
      message += '<p>Track: ' + student.track + '</p>';
      message += '<p>Points: ' + student.points + '</p>';
      message += '<p>Achievements: ' + student.achievements + '</p>';   

      break;
      } 

      else if (input === 'quit') {
        break;
     } 

      else if (index < 0 ) {
          input = prompt("Sorry, our records do not contain a student with that name. Please type a name to search or 'quit' to quit.");

     } 

     else {
      break;
     }

 }

print(message);

Answer 1 · 2017-02-03T18:27:02Z

February 3, 2017 6:27pm

Hey Savannah,

In my opinion you don't need indexOf, just an if statement.

if (students[i].name === input) {
 // do stuff
}

Answer 2 · 2017-02-04T01:01:38Z

February 4, 2017 1:01am

Thanks!

Friends following who need help on this down the road: I used a while loop instead of an if loop and it ran for every student in the array, not just the first one.

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

Savannah Lynn

Savannah Lynn

Need help with indexOf to retrieve an object from an array

2 Answers

Jesus Mendoza

Jesus Mendoza

Savannah Lynn

Savannah Lynn