Alternative Ways to Define Users in Discord.JS - discord.js

Question

So to define users for things like displaying avatars, etc. i've been using this;
var user = message.mentions.users.first() || message.author;
But i've been trying to figure out how people have been able to define users without mentions. Example - my command requires me to tag someone whereas Dyno can do it with partial names. Any tips would be great, thanks!

Answer 1

An easy way to do so would probably be using the .find() function, where you can search for a certain object based on a method.
For example, if we were to have an args variable in our callback (Very easy to do so using a proper command handler - I'd suggest looking for tutorials if you aren't familiar with command handlers), and we were to ask a user to pass in a member's name, we could very easily get the user object using:
const user = message.guild.users.cache.find(user => user.username === args[0]);
// Keep in mind, 'user' is just a variable I've defined. It could also be 'monke => monke.username' if you wish.
Or, if we were to ask for their ID, we could use the .get() function to get the user object by ID:
const user = message.guild.users.cache.get(args[0]);
Do keep in mind it's not the greatest to have these kinds of object getting functions, as there are always multiple conflicts that could occur whilst getting the object, such as if there are multiple users with the same name/tag. I'd highly recommend sticking to your mention-based user objects, as it's the most accurate and non-conflicting method.

Answer 2

Every guild has a list of members which you can search through by enabling the Server Members Intent for your bot via the Discord Developer Portal. Once you have done that, you can fetch a collection of all members of a guild by doing
guild.members.cache;
You can then search this collection to find a member based on a search query using .includes(), .filter() or something similar. For example:
let query = "something";
let list = guild.members.cache.filter(member => member.user.username.includes(query));
console.log(Object.entries(list));
// expected output: list of all server members who's usernames contain "something"
You could also use the .find() method (since a collection is a map) to return a member with an exact username:
let member = guild.members.cache.find(member => member.user.username === query);
console.log(member.tag);
// expected output: tag of the user who's username is "something"

Answer 3

This is as simple as that:
var user = message.guild.members.cache.find(u => u.user.username.toUpperCase() === args.join(" ") || u.user.username.toLowerCase() === args.join(" ") || u.user.username === args.join(" "))
This will find the user on the current guild but you can also search your bot for this user by doing:
var user = client.users.cache.find(u => u.username.toUpperCase() === args.join(" ") || u.username.toLowerCase() === args.join(" ") || u.username === args.join(" "))
I have to assume that you already defined args and client. The example above will find users just by typing their name. toUpperCase means if you type the username in uppercase letters it will find the users anyways. toLowerCase means if you type the username in lowercase letters it will find the user as well. And you could also just type the username as it is. || means or so you can decide how you write the username, it will be found anyways.