When using a dictionary you can check if something is in it very easily like so:
local dict = {
["whatever"] = "yeh",
["stuff"] = "ok",
}
if dict["whatever"] then
-- Do your stuff
end
As you can see it can be done very easily by seeing if the given dictionary contains that key, however with a typical array you cannot do that, you must do it by index.
local array = {"yeh", "ok"}
-- array["yeh"] will not work and will return nil
-- To find if a value is in it or not you have to run a for loop or know the index
-- By index
if array[1] then
-- Do your stuff
end
-- By for loop
for _, v in pairs(array) do
if v == "yeh" then
-- Do your stuff
end
end
This is not that big of a problem as I can easily make a function like this
local function findIn(value, array)
for _, v in pairs(array) do
if v == value then return true end
end
return false
end
I would simply like to know if there is a simpler way to do this.

4 comments
There are no built-in functions for searching tables.
They're not arrays, they're dictionaries. Arrays contain numerical values, not string values.
False, arrays can be any type of value, it's just a table with no keys.
http://lua-users.org/wiki/TablesTutorial