CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
While ListFind and ListContains look for a string (or subset) within a list, FindList does the opposite, finding if any of several items in a list occur within a string. It returns the location of the first one found. This is great for testing if any of several items appear within a given string.

Return Values:
The position of first found list element in string; or 0, if no list elements are in string.

Example:

<cfset testvals="badurl1.com,www.badurl2.org,http://www.badurl3.net">

<cfset teststring="I have www.badurl2.org in here.">
<cfif findlist(testvals,teststring)>
    Found element from bad list.<br>
</cfif>

<cfset teststring="I have a badurl4.com in here.">
<cfif not findlist(testvals,teststring)>
    Did not find any elements from bad list.<br>
</cfif>

<cfset teststring="I have a www.badurl2.org in here.">
<cfset findloc = findlist(testvals,teststring)>
<cfif findloc>
    Found element from bad list at position <cfoutput>#findloc# of "#teststring#"</cfoutput>.<br>
</cfif>

<cfset teststring="I have a www.badurl2.org in here.">
<cfset start=11>
<cfset findloc = findlist(testvals,teststring,start)>
<cfif findloc>
    Found element from bad list at position <cfoutput>#findloc# of "#teststring#"</cfoutput>.<br>
<cfelse>
    Did not find element from bad list in <cfoutput>"#teststring#" starting at position #start#</cfoutput>.<br>
</cfif>

<cfset teststring="I have a www.badurl2.org in here.">
<cfset start=10>
<cfset findloc = findlist(testvals,teststring,start)>
<cfif findloc>
    Found element from bad list at position <cfoutput>#findloc# of "#teststring#"</cfoutput>.<br>
<cfelse>
    Did not find element from bad list in <cfoutput>"#teststring#" starting at position #start#</cfoutput>.<br>
</cfif>

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

<!---
 Finds within a given string the location of the first occurrence of any element in a list.
 
 @param valueList      List of values to check for. (Required)
 @param stringtocompare      String to be searched. (Required)
 @param start      Optional starting position. Defaults to 1.  (Optional)
 @param delim      List delimiter. Defaults to a comma. (Optional)
 @return The position of first found list element in string; or 0, if no list elements are in string. 
 @author Charlie Arehart (charlie@carehart.org) 
 @version 0, September 15, 2008 
--->
<cffunction name="findList" returnType="numeric" output="false">
    <cfargument name="valuelist" required="Yes" type="string">
    <cfargument name="stringtocompare" required="Yes" type="string">
    <cfargument name="start" required="No" type="numeric" default="0">
    <cfargument name="delim" required="no" type="string" default=",">
    <cfset var test=arrayNew(1)>
    <cfset var x = "">


    <cfloop list="#arguments.valuelist#" index="x" delimiters="#arguments.delim#">
        <cfset ArrayAppend(test,findnocase(x,arguments.stringtocompare, arguments.start)) />
    </cfloop>

    <cfreturn arrayMin(test) />
</cffunction>