Difference between initializing array length and assign to index vs repeatedly pushing - javascript

While working on building a list of sheet names, I came across this question:
List names of sheets in Google Sheets and skip the first two
Saving you the click, this person's solution is: (Stripped down, pseudo code)
getSheets() // Get all the sheets in spreadsheet workbook
var out = new Array( sheets.length+1 ) ;
for (var i = 1 ; i < sheets.length+1 ; i++ )
out[i] = [sheets[i-1].getName()];
return out
My solution would have leveraged:
...
var sheetName = sheet[i].getName();
out.push(sheetName);
The first solution seems to dynamically create empty array values, then later declare their value. While I have always just pushed new values into the array.
What is the difference?
In which situations is one better than the other?
In which situations should either be avoided?

Your code and the original code do quite different things.
Assuming sheets has objects in it that return the names "sheet1", "sheet2", and "sheet3" from getName, the original code creates an array that looks like this:
[
(missing),
["sheet1"],
["sheet2"],
["sheet3"]
]
Note two things:
There is no entry at index 0. (It literally doesn't exist at all, which is subtly different from existing and containing the value undefined.)
The other entries are single-element arrays, each containing its sheet name.
Your code creates this instead:
[
"sheet1",
"sheet2",
"sheet3"
]
Presumably the author had a reason for skipping index 0 and creating subordinate arrays (I'd guess because they were passing that result array into some API function that expects something in that form).
So there's no really a "better" or "worse" here, just different.
If your fundamental question is whether this:
var original = ["one", "two", "three"];
var updated = [];
for (var i = 0; i < original.length; ++i) {
updated[i] = original[i].toUpperCase(); // Or whatever
}
is better/worse than this:
var original = ["one", "two", "three"];
var updated = [];
for (var i = 0; i < original.length; ++i) {
updated.push(original[i].toUpperCase()); // Or whatever
}
the answer is: It's really a matter of style. Performance isn't markedly different between the two (and rarely matters), and amusingly one way is faster on some JavaScript engines and the other way is faster on others.
Both of those can probably be better expressed using map:
var original = ["one", "two", "three"];
var updated = original.map(function(entry) { return entry.toUpperCase(); });
I think Google Sheets has map, even though it mostly has only ES3-level features otherwise.
Side note: new Array is almost never the right way to create an array.

Related

JS arrays 3 deep getting lost

Learing JS by game. and of course the simplist is a clicker :-)
OK, so I have had lots of help with this, but the array section is just not sinking in. JS arrays do not work like arrays I am used to. two part question:
1. Why does the following code keep saying weaponlevelIfo[0] undefined, when it is defined? Please explain your answer, don't just correct mine LOL
2. I am more interesting in populating the code at runtime
As stated, all the research I am coming across as well as videos, talk about static data, i.e. it is put in at programing level, not run time.
I have had a really patient community person that has tried to help me understand JS arrays, but I must be blind as I am not seeing it. I can do in in other language just fine. but JS? nope.
// produces weaponLevelNfo[weaponId][level][cost] and [goldperclick]
// weapon, level 1-9, cost/goldperclick on each level
var weaponLevelNfo = new Array(14); // Outter array comprised of weapons 0-14
function initGame() {
for (let i=0; i <= weaponLevelNfo.length; i++) {
weaponLevelNfo[i] = new Array(9); // create leves array under weaponid array
for (let j = 0; j < weaponLevelNfo[i].length; j++) {
// loop through each 9 levels changing as needed
weaponLevelNfo[i][j] = new Array(2); // create an object for readability
}
}
}
initGame();// added - forgot to add this in the original post (sorry)
weaponLevelNfo[0][0][2]=3;
console.log(weaponLevelNfo[0][0][2]);
// always gives me weaponLevelNfo[0] not defined
I prefer the results to be as such
weaponLevelNfo[x][y].cost,
weaponLevelNfo[x][y].incomePerClick,
but am quite happy with
weaponLevelNfo[x][y][z],
weaponLevelNfo[x][y][z],
But as you can see from the code, assigning them direct or at runtime, I get the not defined error
What is missing to allow me to assign these at run time?
Two issues:
You need to call initGame to create all those subarrays, otherwise weaponLevelNfo[0] is not defined and so weaponLevelNfo[0][0] will trigger the error you get.
Your outer loop performs one iteration too many (<=). Change:
for (let i=0; i <= weaponLevelNfo.length; i++) {
by
for (let i=0; i < weaponLevelNfo.length; i++) {
Without that change, the last iteration is actually adding an element to the array in slot i, and so the length of the array increases... the loop becomes infinit.
Note that there are shorter ways to define such a nested array. For instance:
var weaponLevelNfo = Array.from({length:14}, () => Array.from({length:9}, () => [0, 0]));
When you create an array in javascript with new Array(2) this is an array with two positions. In this example (new Array(2)), you can access it at index 0 and index 1. Consider the following:
var newArr = new Array(2);
You can then access the two positions by the following:
var position1 = newArr[0];
var position2 = newArr[1];
So when you try this:
var position = newArr[2];
This will throw an undefined exception.
You can change the end of your example code to this:
weaponLevelNfo[0][0][1]=3;
console.log(weaponLevelNfo[0][0][1]);
You define array with two elements Array(2) with indexes 0 and 1 but you use index 2.
To initialize multidimensional array filled by zeros (if not remove .fill(0)) use
[...Array(14)].map(x=>[...Array(9)].map(y=>Array(2).fill(0)));
let a=[...Array(14)].map(x=>[...Array(9)].map(y=>Array(2).fill(0)));
a[13][8][1]=3;
console.log('Last element value:',a[13][8][1]);
console.log(JSON.stringify(a));

javascript delete object property is deleting entire object

I have a bizarre issue happening here. I am retrieving data from a remote source and I need to reformat it for better internal use
The data structure is like the following:
clubs = [
0: {
propA: "blah",
probB: "bar",
events: [
0: {
data1: "foo",
data2: "bar"
}
1: {
data1: "this",
data2: "that"
}
1: {
propA: "hello",
probB: "bye",
events [
0: { ...}
1: {...}
...
...
I am looping through clubs and I want to assign the values of each club into its own events as property clubInfo. When I do that though, clubInfo becomes and endless chain of itself. So I delete the new clubInfo.events - and then everything but the root club[0] gets wiped out. I hope I am being clear, its hard to explain.
If I do this:
for (var i=0; i<clubs.clubs.length;i++) {
var clubInfo = clubs.clubs[i] ;
var events = clubs.clubs[i].events ;
for (var j=0; j<events.length; j++) {
}
}
Then clubs becomes:
clubs [
0: events [
clubInfo [
0: events [
clubInfo [
0: events [
....and goes on seemingly forever
]
]
]
]
]
]
If I do:
for (var i=0; i<clubs.clubs.length;i++) {
var clubInfo = clubs.clubs[i] ;
delete clubInfo.events ;
var events = clubs.clubs[i].events ; // events is now empty
for (var j=0; j<events.length; j++) { // errors here because there is no length after the delete
}
}
Then all that remains of clubs is, in fact none of the other properties that have arrays events or others (several of them) are all gone.:
clubs [
0: {
propA: "blah",
probB: "bar"
}
]
Instead of delete, i have even tried just nulling clubInfo.events = null - but the same issue happens, everything gets wiped out.
Oh boy, you've snagged one of JavaScript's current, and most obvious flaws by effectively using this:
clubs[i].event[j].clubInfo = clubs[i];
You're creating an infinite reference - what do I mean by that? It's better displayed through an Array, if you'll oblige me:
let a=[]; a.push([a]);
This creates an infinite level array through self-reference, creating an incalculable depth. You see, though there's a 32(2^32-1) bit limit to an Array's length. This can be demonstrated easily:
Array(2**32); //Uncaught RangeError: Invalid array length
Presumably this was done to prevent browser memory from shorting but, strangely, there was never any consideration to the depth an array may contain. A minor side effect of this is that there is no depth property, but a major side effect is that there is no protection from an infinite self-referencing array.
Getting Around It
The best way to get around this type of situation is to construct a new Object and assign properties from the old Object to the new. You can think of this as cloning. To do this you can utilize the assign method:
Object.assign(constructor, **Array**/**Object**)
Example:
let a = []; a.push(Object.assign([], a));
Problem solved, right? uhhh... not quite Even though this can sometimes work, this still won't fix the issue of an Array or Object with more than shallow references. To get around that you have to use a combination of:
JSON.stringify(obj);
to break references
JSON.parse(JSON);
to remake your object, and
delete obj[deepReference];
deletion to stop any unforeseen issues with any superfluous data/references
None of this is ideal, but currently there is no way to completely separate all references inside of an object or array without recursive iteration.
To give you an example - In your case you're going to want to do something like this:
for (var i = 0; i < clubs.length; i++) {
var clubInfo = clubs[i];
var events = clubs[i].events;
for (var j = 0; j < events.length; j++) {
let jsonTranslation = Object.assign({}, clubs[i]);
delete jsonTranslation.events;
jsonTranslation = JSON.stringify(jsonTranslation);
clubs[i].events[j].clubInfo = JSON.parse(jsonTranslation);
}
}
let clubs = [{
propA: "blah",
probB: "bar",
events: [{
data1: "foo",
data2: "bar"
},
{
data1: "this",
data2: "that"
}
]
}];
for (var i = 0; i < clubs.length; i++) {
var clubInfo = clubs[i];
var events = clubs[i].events;
for (var j = 0; j < events.length; j++) {
let jsonTranslation = Object.assign({}, clubs[i]);
delete jsonTranslation.events;
jsonTranslation = JSON.stringify(jsonTranslation);
clubs[i].events[j].clubInfo = JSON.parse(jsonTranslation);
}
}
console.log(clubs);
Additional Info: Other watch outs
Similarly there are other issues in the language. A badly implemented Array constructor method. Array(n) returns an Array with n members. Why's that an issue? Everything in JavaScript that is declared and not instantiated is undefined except the members of a freshly constructed array. They return empty. The issue with that is this means they have no mappable values. Ergo, all those sweet new functional ES Array methods are useless until the Array is filled. As an example:
Array(3).map((m, i) => i);
This results in well... the same thing you started with — when clearly it should provide a numbered array from 0-2. This is not as big of a deal as an infinite reference because you can work around it like this:
Array(3).fill(0).map((m,i) => i);
But it's effectively a wasted method call to take care of a problem that should be handled within construction.
Lastly, the fill method — give it an object or an Array and it doesn't create n individual object members. It creates n references to a singular array or object and stuffs them into one array. At base logic, it sort of makes sense. As #FelixKling pointed out in the comments, it is fairly consistent with what you would expect, a.e. fill this array with this one thing. I still would debate a bit about it's functionality for two reasons.
In what situation would anyone need n references stored in an Array to the same place in memory? Probably never. How often do people need an Array of similarly constructed Objects? All the time.
When passing an Object Literal for instance ( .fill({a:1}) )I can see the logic of filling the Array with references, even if it may not be wholly intuitive. If passed a Constructor- I would contest that it might make more sense to instantiate each member individually.
So there are many nuances, and inconsistencies with JavaScript that require knowledge to work around — and sadly, infinite reference, is one of them - but on the plus side the only way to typically realize these issues exist is to run into them headlong, so be thankful it wasn't in production!
Hope this helps! Happy Coding!

Using a variable as a reference level in an object

I'm quite new to coding html/js. I checked answers on here but either can't understand them well enough or they aren't quite what I'm looking for.
The problem is straight forward enough; if I have the following object;
var gadget = {"1":{"id":A, "name":"Rawr"},"2":{"id":B, "name":"GoGoGadget"}"1":{"id":C, "name":"Extendable Arms!"}};
Now, if I wanted to use a forloop (for whatever reason) to extract the names of these objects I would like to try;
var i = 0;
var names = [];
for (i = 0; i < gadget.length; i++) {
names.push(gadget.i.name);
}
I'm not surprised that this doesn't work as the "i" would probably got interpreted as the string "i" here rather than it's numeral. Unfortunately I've tried a few variants that I've found online (like using names.push(gadget[i].name) which also shouldn't work since that suggests gadget is a vector and not an object) but haven't been able to figure out how to get it to work.
Is there somewhere I can find this syntax? Or is this one of those things that seems like it should be easy but js just doesn't really have a nice solution for?
Thanks!
edit:
I didn't mean to suggest I always wanted every entry in the vector, so to clarify my question further, what if I wanted to use a forloop to only find the names of gadget entries given in another object; ie given;
var searchvec = [{"id":1,"count":17},{"id":3,"count":12}];
var i = 0;
var names = [];
for (i = 0; i < searchvec.length; i++) {
index = searchvec.i.id;
names.push(gadget.index.name);
}
I think this is what you are looking for:
var gadget = {"1": {"id": "A", "name": "Rawr"}, "2": {"id": "B", "name": "GoGoGadget"}, "3": {"id": "C", "name": "Extendable Arms!"}};
let names = [];
for (let i in gadget) {
// i is String
names.push(gadget[i].name);
}
for (let i in names) {
// i is int value
console.log(names[i]);
}
Using the for (let x IN o) js takes care for you no matter wether it is an object or an array.
With array, the for loop will cycle through the the array indexes, with x being an int value, and with objects it will cycle through the properties of the object, with x being the property name.
See reference:
MDN
Javascript is a really quirky language and can cause you serious hitches if you are used to more rigorous language. In js an array is actually an object with numbers as keys + some other goodies (such as a push() method) (to see it you may try in a console: typeof []))
P.S. this means you can actually access object properties with obj[key] being key a variable, even null-valued.
You can do something like below:
var names = [];
for (let [key,value] of Object.entries(gadgets)){
names.push(value)
}

Filter/Search JavaScript array of objects based on other array in Node JS

i have one array of ids and one JavaScript objects array. I need to filter/search the JavaScript objects array with the values in the array in Node JS.
For example
var id = [1,2,3];
var fullData = [
{id:1, name: "test1"}
,{id:2, name: "test2"}
,{id:3, name: "test3"}
,{id:4, name: "test4"}
,{id:5, name: "test5"}
];
Using the above data, as a result i need to have :
var result = [
{id:1, name: "test1"}
,{id:2, name: "test2"}
,{id:3, name: "test3"}
];
I know i can loop through both and check for matching ids. But is this the only way to do it or there is more simple and resource friendly solution.
The amount of data which will be compared is about 30-40k rows.
This will do the trick, using Array.prototype.filter:
var result = fullData.filter(function(item){ // Filter fulldata on...
return id.indexOf(item.id) !== -1; // Whether or not the current item's `id`
}); // is found in the `id` array.
Please note that this filter function is not available on IE 8 or lower, but the MDN has a polyfill available.
As long as you're starting with an unsorted Array of all possible Objects, there's no way around iterating through it. #Cerbrus' answer is one good way of doing this, with Array.prototype.filter, but you could also use loops.
But do you really need to start with an unsorted Array of all possible Objects?
For example, is it possible to filter these objects out before they ever get into the Array? Maybe you could apply your test when you're first building the Array, so that objects which fail the test never even become part of it. That would be more resource-friendly, and if it makes sense for your particular app, then it might even be simpler.
function insertItemIfPass(theArray, theItem, theTest) {
if (theTest(theItem)) {
theArray.push(theItem);
}
}
// Insert your items by using insertItemIfPass
var i;
for (i = 0; i < theArray.length; i += 1) {
doSomething(theArray[i]);
}
Alternatively, could you use a data structure that keeps track of whether an object passes the test? The simplest way to do this, if you absolutely must use an Array, would be to also keep an index to it. When you add your objects to the Array, you apply the test: if an object passes, then its position in the Array gets put into the index. Then, when you need to get objects out of the Array, you can consult the index: that way, you don't waste time going through the Array when you don't need to touch most of the objects in the first place. If you have several different tests, then you could keep several different indexes, one for each test. This takes a little more memory, but it can save a lot of time.
function insertItem(theArray, theItem, theTest, theIndex) {
theArray.push(theItem);
if (theTest(theItem)) {
theIndex.push(theArray.length - 1);
}
}
// Insert your items using insertItem, which also builds the index
var i;
for (i = 0; i < theIndex.length; i += 1) {
doSomething(theArray[theIndex[i]]);
}
Could you sort the Array so that the test can short-circuit? Imagine a setup where you've got your array set up so that everything which passes the test comes first. That way, as soon as you hit your first item that fails, you know that all of the remaining items will fail. Then you can stop your loop right away, since you know there aren't any more "good" items.
// Insert your items, keeping items which pass theTest before items which don't
var i = 0;
while (i < theArray.length) {
if (!theTest(theArray[i])) {
break;
}
doSomething(theArray[i]);
i += 1;
}
The bottom line is that this isn't so much a language question as an algorithms question. It doesn't sound like your current data structure -an unsorted Array of all possible items- is well-suited for your particular problem. Depending on what else the application needs to do, it might make more sense to use another data structure entirely, or to augment the existing structure with indexes. Either way, if it's planned carefully, will save you some time.

Retrieve duplicate results when searching for duplicate keys?

I am in a situation that feels a little odd ... I have a list of keys deliberately containing duplicates. For the sake of the arguments lets assume this list looks like [1,2,3,2,1]. Currently the code to fetch the documents belonging to these Ids loops over the list of keys, calls findOne() and pushes the document into an array.
So we have a construct like this:
for (var i = 0; i < keys.length; i++) {
documents.push(db.items.findOne(keys[i]);
}
I am wondering whether there is a way to do this in a more ... elegant ... fashion, preferably with a single query? Keeping the order would be a plus but is not strictly required.
Edit:
Please note that this is a MongoDB question. I am looking for a way to substitute the above loop with a single call to db.items.find().
I don't think there's a direct way to retrieve a list for duplicate keys, but since you said that keys are unique you could do it using $in and some looping:
var keys = [1,2,3,2,1];
var docHash = {}; //auxiliary hashtable containing mapping id -> document
var documents = []; //the result
db.items.find({id : {$in : keys}})
.forEach(
function(doc) {
//if multiple documents can have the same key change it to:
// if (docHash[doc.id]) {
// docHash[doc.id].push(doc);
// } else {
// docHash[doc.id] = [doc];
// }
docHash[doc.id] = doc;
});
keys.forEach(function(i) {
// if multiple documents can have the same key change it to:
// docHash[i].forEach(function(item) {documents.push(item);});
documents.push(docHash[i]);
}
Note that, while it's longer than the original, it queries the database only once. As a bonus it returns documents in the same order as the given keys.
use for-each function in java-script that should help you a bit:
for (var i in keys) {// i will be 1 ,2 ,3 ,3 ,1
documents.push(db.items.findOne(i);
}
or i might've missed your questions intention complety?
but then again duplicate keys do not exist in any array..
var used=Array();
for (var i = 0; i < keys.length; i++) {
if (!used[keys[i]]){
used[keys[i]]=1;
documents.push(db.items.findOne(keys[i]);}
}
that will ignore any duplicates and count them as one eather that or you can run query on the keys rendering them in to a new array that does not contains duplicates

Categories

Resources