How to filter an array/object by checking multiple values

You can use .filter() method of the Array object:

var filtered = workItems.filter(function(element) {
   // Create an array using `.split()` method
   var cats = element.category.split(' ');

   // Filter the returned array based on specified filters
   // If the length of the returned filtered array is equal to
   // length of the filters array the element should be returned  
   return cats.filter(function(cat) {
       return filtersArray.indexOf(cat) > -1;
   }).length === filtersArray.length;
});

http://jsfiddle.net/6RBnB/

Some old browsers like IE8 doesn’t support .filter() method of the Array object, if you are using jQuery you can use .filter() method of jQuery object.

jQuery version:

var filtered = $(workItems).filter(function(i, element) {
   var cats = element.category.split(' ');

    return $(cats).filter(function(_, cat) {
       return $.inArray(cat, filtersArray) > -1;
    }).length === filtersArray.length;
});