();
```
---
### Author:  [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2019, 7:42am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/writing-a-search-function/11403/3 "2019-05-20T07:42:06Z")
Gotoloop is right
When you have a central hashmap with all booleans and all objects use this hashmap, then the search can for loop over it and compare a search pattern with the objects
---
### Author:  [@GoToLoop](https://discourse.processing.org/u/GoToLoop)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2019, 8:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/writing-a-search-function/11403/4 "2019-05-20T08:12:35Z")
On 2nd thought, given we’re simply checking whether an object contains some tag, we can just use a StringList instead: 💡
[Processing.org/reference/StringList.html](http://Processing.org/reference/StringList.html)
And call its method **hasValue()** in order to check whether a String tag is stored in the container: 🎫
[Processing.org/reference/StringList\_hasValue\_.html](http://Processing.org/reference/StringList_hasValue_.html)
---
### Author:  [@morisil](https://discourse.processing.org/u/morisil)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2019, 8:49am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/writing-a-search-function/11403/5 "2019-05-20T08:49:11Z")
I like @GoToLoop suggestion, but in this case maybe Java `Set` is even better thanks to `containsAll` method:
```auto
class MyObject {
Set tags = new HashSet<>();
...
}
MyObject[] search(MyObject[] objects, Set tags) {
List result = new LinkedList<>();
for (MyObject object : objects) {
if (object.tags.containsAll(tags)) {
result.add(object);
}
}
return result.toArray(new MyObject[0]);
}
```
It should be already quite fast thanks to hash functions, but if the performance is a concern, you might consider calling `intern()` on each string.
---
### Author:  [@morisil](https://discourse.processing.org/u/morisil)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2019, 8:59am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/writing-a-search-function/11403/6 "2019-05-20T08:59:53Z")
The more idiomatic Java 8 way would be:
```auto
class MyObject {
Set tags = new HashSet<>();
}
MyObject[] search(MyObject[] objects, Set tags) {
return Stream.of(objects)
.filter(myObject -> myObject.tags.containsAll(tags))
.toArray(MyObject[]::new);
}
```
But I believe this one cannot be used in Processing directly due to lack of lambdas. Still it can be used when developing on top of Processing directly in Java, like I do in this project: [https://github.com/morisil/processing-shaders/](https://github.com/morisil/processing-shaders/)
---
### Author:  [@GoToLoop](https://discourse.processing.org/u/GoToLoop)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2019, 10:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/writing-a-search-function/11403/7 "2019-05-20T10:12:02Z")
> [@morisil](#):
>
> But I believe this one cannot be used in Processing directly due to lack of lambdas.
Not only that, but even the empty `<>` diamond can’t be used inside “.pde” files, only in “.java” 1s! ☹
And lambdas aren’t allowed even in “.java” files under the Processing’s IDE (PDE)! 😲
---
### Author:  [@dtools22](https://discourse.processing.org/u/dtools22)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2019, 12:55pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/writing-a-search-function/11403/8 "2019-05-24T12:55:30Z")
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I am still testing out my code but so far it looks like the first suggestion by GoToLoop works the way I want it to. I can add all the Boolean tags that an object might have into a HashMap by String name, then type that String name in as the parameter in the search function, if the parameter has a stored value in the HashMap then I can find out if that Boolean is true or false and run a for loop to cover each object.
That seems like it is doing exactly what I need. I haven’t tried any of the other methods but I will to see how each method functions.