I'm trying to setup an object literal in a JavaScript script that has a key with multiple names. referring to the same object value i.e. something like these that I have already tried:
var holidays: {
"thanksgiving day", "thanksgiving", "t-day": {
someValue : "foo"
}
}
var holidays: {
["thanksgiving day", "thanksgiving", "t-day"]: {
someValue : "foo"
}
}
Is there a way I can accomplish this?
Another approach is to do some postprocessing
function expand(obj) {
var keys = Object.keys(obj);
for (var i = 0; i < keys.length; ++i) {
var key = keys[i],
subkeys = key.split(/,\s?/),
target = obj[key];
delete obj[key];
subkeys.forEach(function(key) { obj[key] = target; })
}
return obj;
}
var holidays = expand({
"thanksgiving day, thanksgiving, t-day": {
someValue : "foo"
}
});
JSON does not offer such a feature, nor do Javascript object literals.
You might be able to make do with something like this:
holidays = {
thanksgiving: {foo: 'foo'},
groundhogDay: {foo: 'bar'},
aliases: {
'thanksgiving day': 'thanksgiving',
't-day': 'thanksgiving',
'Bill Murrays nightmare': 'groundhogDay'
}
}
and then you can check
holidays[name] || holidays[holidays.aliases[name]]
for your data.
It's not a wonderful solution. But it wouldn't be too difficult to write a little function that created this sort of object out of a representation like:
[
{
names: ['thanksgiving', 'thanksgiving day', 't-day'],
obj: {foo: 'foo'}
},
{
names: ['groundhogDay', 'Bill Murrays nightmare'],
obj: {foo: 'bar'}
},
]
if that would be easier to maintain.
Another solution, if you can afford RegExp execution, and ES6 Proxy:
let align = new Proxy({
'start|top|left': -1,
'middle|center': 0,
'end|bottom|right': 1,
}, {
get: function(target, property, receiver) {
for (let k in target)
if (new RegExp(k).test(property))
return target[k]
return null
}
})
align.start // -1
align.top // -1
align.left // -1
align.middle // 0
align.center // 0
align.end // 1
align.bottom // 1
align.right // 1
See MDN Proxy
2021 EDIT:
Another (cleaner?) solution using reduce & defineProperty :
const myDict = [
// list of pairs [value, keys],
// note that a key should appear only once
[-1, ['start', 'left', 'top']],
[0, ['center', 'middle']],
[1, ['end', 'right', 'bottom']],
].reduce((obj, [value, keys]) => {
for (const key of keys) {
Object.defineProperty(obj, key, { value })
}
return obj
}, {})
I guess you could do something like this:
var holidays = {
'thanksgiving day': {
foo: 'foo'
}
};
holidays.thanksgiving = holidays['t-day'] = holidays['thanksgiving day'];
If you see yourself doing this often or you have more values consider this pattern:
'thanksgiving, t-day, thanks, thank, thank u'.split(',').forEach(function(key) {
holidays[key] = holidays['thanksgiving day'];
});
A better approach would be to process your data beforehand instead of adding duplicates.
That should work as expected:
function getItem(_key) {
items = [{
item: 'a',
keys: ['xyz','foo']
},{
item: 'b',
keys: ['xwt','bar']
}];
_filtered = items.filter(function(item) {
return item.keys.indexOf(_key) != -1
}).map(function(item) {
return item.item;
});
return !!_filtered.length ? _filtered[0] : false;
}
With ES6 you could do it like this, but it's not ideal:
const holidays = {
"single": {
singleValue: "foo",
},
...([
"thanksgiving day", "thanksgiving", "t-day",
].reduce((a, v) => ({...a, [v]: {
someValue: "foo",
}}), {})),
"other": {
otherValue: "foo",
},
};
I still think the cleanest solution is probably:
let holidays = {
"t-day": {
someValue: "foo",
},
};
holidays["thanksgiving"] = holidays["t-day"];
holidays["thanksgiving day"] = holidays["t-day"];
Now this may be overkill for you, but here's a generic function that will create an object with "multiple keys." What it actually does is have one real property with the actual value, and then defines getters and setters to forward operations from the virtual keys to the actual property.
function multiKey(keyGroups) {
let obj = {};
let props = {};
for (let keyGroup of keyGroups) {
let masterKey = keyGroup[0];
let prop = {
configurable: true,
enumerable: false,
get() {
return obj[masterKey];
},
set(value) {
obj[masterKey] = value;
}
};
obj[masterKey] = undefined;
for (let i = 1; i < keyGroup.length; ++i) {
if (keyGroup.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
props[keyGroup[i]] = prop;
}
}
}
return Object.defineProperties(obj, props);
}
This is less sketchy than you would expect, has basically no performance penalty once the object is created, and behaves nicely with enumeration (for...in loops) and membership testing (in operator). Here's some example usage:
let test = multiKey([
['north', 'up'],
['south', 'down'],
['east', 'left'],
['west', 'right']
]);
test.north = 42;
test.down = 123;
test.up; // returns 42
test.south; // returns 123
let count = 0;
for (let key in test) {
count += 1;
}
count === 4; // true; only unique (un-linked) properties are looped over
Taken from my Gist, which you may fork.
Same reponse (ES6 Proxy, RegExp), but in a shorter way (and significantly less legible)
let align = new Proxy({
'start|top|left': -1,
'middle|center': 0,
'end|bottom|right': 1,
}, { get: (t, p) => Object.keys(t).reduce((r, v) => r !== undefined ? r : (new RegExp(v).test(p) ? t[v] : undefined), undefined) })
align.start // -1
align.top // -1
align.left // -1
align.middle // 0
align.center // 0
align.end // 1
align.bottom // 1
align.right // 1
//create some objects(!) you want to have aliases for..like tags
var {learn,image,programming} =
["learn", "image", "programming"].map(tag=>({toString:()=>tag }));
//create arbitrary many aliases using a Map
var alias = new Map();
alias.set("photo", image);
alias.set("pic", image);
alias.set("learning", learn);
alias.set("coding", programming);
//best put the original tagNames in here too..
//pretty easy huh?
// returns the image object
alias.get("pic");
// ;)
here is a way you can initialize an object with several keys sharing the same value
var holidays = {
...["thanksgiving day", "thanksgiving", "t-day"].reduce((acc, key) => ({ ...acc, [key]: 'foo' }), {})
}
although I would personally think it was more clear if it was written out
Object.fromEntries produces some fairly readable and concise code:
var holidays = Object.fromEntries(
["thanksgiving day", "thanksgiving", "t-day"].map(k => [k, "foo"]));
The spread syntax can be used to include this alongside other key/value pairs:
var holidaysAndMore = {
"A": "a",
...Object.fromEntries(
["thanksgiving day", "thanksgiving", "t-day"].map(k => [k, "foo"])),
"B": "b"
};
You could take an object with different keys pointing to the same object and a Proxy for shaping setting and getting.
The advantage is to use multiple entry pairs with an array of keys and a value and having only a single value for all grouped keys.
const
etepetete = entries => new Proxy(
Object.fromEntries(entries.flatMap(([keys, value]) => keys.map((v => k => [k, v])({ value })))),
{
get (target, prop, receiver) {
if (prop in target) return target[prop].value;
return Reflect.get(...arguments);
},
set (target, prop, value, receiver) {
if (prop in target) {
target[prop].value = value;
return true;
}
}
}
),
holiday = etepetete([
[["thanksgiving day", "thanksgiving", "t-day"], "foo"]
]);
console.log(holiday['t-day']);
holiday['thanksgiving day'] = 'bar';
console.log(holiday['t-day']);