How to check if an array contains another array?

A nested array is essentially a 2D array, var x = [[1,2],[3,4]] would be a 2D array since I reference it with 2 index's, eg x[0][1] would be 2.

Onto your question you could use a plain loop to tell if they're included since this isn't supported for complex arrays:

var x = [[1,2],[3,4]];
var check = [1,2];
function isArrayInArray(source, search) {
    for (var i = 0, len = source.length; i < len; i++) {
        if (source[i][0] === search[0] && source[i][1] === search[1]) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}
console.log(isArrayInArray(x, check)); // prints true

Update that accounts for any length array

function isArrayInArray(source, search) {
    var searchLen = search.length;
    for (var i = 0, len = source.length; i < len; i++) {
        // skip not same length
        if (source[i].length != searchLen) continue;
        // compare each element
        for (var j = 0; j < searchLen; j++) {
            // if a pair doesn't match skip forwards
            if (source[i][j] !== search[j]) {
                break;
            }
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}
console.log(isArrayInArray([[1,2,3],[3,4,5]], [1,2,3])); // true

Short and easy, stringify the array and compare as strings

function isArrayInArray(arr, item){
  var item_as_string = JSON.stringify(item);

  var contains = arr.some(function(ele){
    return JSON.stringify(ele) === item_as_string;
  });
  return contains;
}

var myArray = [
  [1, 0],
  [1, 1],
  [1, 3],
  [2, 4]
]
var item = [1, 0]

console.log(isArrayInArray(myArray, item));  // Print true if found

check some documentation here


Here is an ES6 solution:

myArray.some(
    r => r.length == itemTrue.length &&
         r.every((value, index) => itemTrue[index] == value)
);

Check the JSFiddle.

Take a look at arrow functions and the methods some and every of the Array object.


You can't do like that .instance you have to do some thing by your own .. first you have to do a foreach from your array that you want to search and run 'compareArray' function for each item of your array .

function compareArray( arrA, arrB ){

    //check if lengths are different
    if(arrA.length !== arrB.length) return false;


    for(var i=0;i<arrA.length;i++){
         if(arrA[i]!==arrB[i]) return false;
    }

    return true;

}