How to reuse array functions in an infinite loop - javascript

The real code is larger, so I won't post it. It looks pretty much like this:
class A {
process(source) {
// I perform several operations with array helper functions here:
const filtered = source.filter(item => item);
const condition = filtered.some(item => item);
if (condition) {
const mapped = source.map(item => /* Mapping operations... */);
const sorted = mapped.sort((a, b) => { /* Some sort conditions... */ });
return sorted;
} else {
const mapped2 = filtered.map(item => /* A different mapping operation... */);
return mapped2;
}
}
}
const a = new A();
while (true) {
const source = getSourceFromSomewhere(); // Array (40 - 50 items aprox)
const b = a.process(source);
// ...
}
The problem: Basically, performance; "Don't make functions within a loop".
On every iteration a bunch of anonymous functions are getting created.
My solution:
class A {
// Predefine it:
sort() { /* Sort logic */ }
map() { /* Map logic */ }
map2() { /* Map logic */ }
filter() { /* Filter logic */ }
some() { /* Condition */ }
process(source) {
const filtered = source.filter(this.filter); // Note: Scope of 'this' is changed.
const condition = filtered.some(this.some);
if (condition) {
const mapped = source.map(this.map);
const sorted = mapped.sort(this.sort);
return sorted;
} else {
const mapped2 = filtered.map(this.map2);
return mapped2;
}
}
}
Another problem: Some of this functions need access to properties of the object itself, but the scope of this has been changed.
It's worth to call .bind(this) instead of creating the anonymous function? or pretty much the same?
What would you do in my case?
Thanks in advance.

To initialize bound functions within a class you could do
class Test {
fn = (t) => this[t]
}
basically the same what you wanted to do anyways.

The problem: Basically, performance; "Don't make functions within a loop".
Your premise is incorrect.
JavaScript engines are highly optimized. They do not laboriously read the source text character-by-character each time through a loop, or each time a function is called, much less each time a callback is invoked. They scan, parse, and pre-compile. At worst, functions like item => item will be created only once per function invocation. More likely, they will be pre-created during the initial scanning and parsing process.
Therefore, you don't need to worry about performance when considering whether to pre-define the functions yourself. The guiding principle should instead be program readability and structure.
If you do want to pre-define a function, as long as it does not use this, consider defining it outside the class:
function filterFunc(item) { return item.val < MAX; }
class A {
process() {
const filtered = source.filter(filterFunc);
If you do need 'this`, then in modern JS it is preferable to write
class A {
filterFunc(item) { return item.val < this.MAX; }
process() {
const filtered = source.filter(item => this.filterFunc(item));
instead of worrying about binding this.filterFunc making you write
class A {
constructor () { this.filterFunc = this.filterFunc.bind(this); }
process() {
const filtered = source.filter(this.filterFunc);

While as mentioned in another answer
class Test {
// constructor etc.
step = x => x + this.currentStep;
process() {
return this.arr.map(step);
}
}
would be a concise way to achieve your intended behavior, as this is already bound to the instance, it requires public class fields which is still in Stage 2, and therefore not yet supported in many browsers without a transpiler.
It is good to remember that you can always pass the this scope to the second argument of functions such as map and filter, so you don't have to manually bind your functions beforehand. The code then becomes
class Test {
// constructor etc.
step(x) { return x + this.currentStep; }
process() {
return this.arr.map(step, this);
}
}
This is very close to the solution you have in mind while making sure your functions have the correct scope.
Though I don't know much about inner workings of browsers I think if the code is hot enough (that is being ran often), the optimized compiler might not need to recreate those anonymous functions every run.

Related

How to get returned values from my listener's callback ES6 way

I made an input that let me filter a table of softwares.
<input type="text" id="softwares-search" class="form-control" aria-label="Input de recherche" aria-describedby="softwares-search">
Then in javascript my filter work well if I console.log(....)
But when I replace it with a return, nothing is returned. I think it is due to my var affectation through the event listener :
const maxwell = () => {
search = document.querySelector('#softwares-search').value;
return softwares.filter(row => row.name.includes(search) || row.description.includes(search));
}
const softwaresSearch = document.querySelector('#softwares-search');
if (softwaresSearch) {
var results = softwaresSearch.addEventListener('keyup', maxwell)
console.log(results);
}
Thank all
EDIT 1 :
I was so angry, so blind, I had S#!t in my eyes, no need to use a global :(
const softwaresSearch = document.getElementById('softwares-search');
if (softwaresSearch) {
softwaresSearch.addEventListener('keyup', (e) => {
search = document.getElementById('softwares-search').value;
var filtredSoftwares = softwares.filter(e => e.name.includes(search) || e.description.includes(search) );
renderTable(filtredSoftwares);
});
}
const renderTable = (softwares) => {
Object.values(softwares).forEach(value=>{
console.log(value);
});
// Todo build HTML table
}
Instead of returning I think you just need to replace the current array like this
const maxwell = () => {
search = document.querySelector('#softwares-search').value;
softwares = softwares.filter(row => row.name.includes(search) || row.description.includes(search));
}
And results is not needed:
const softwaresSearch = document.querySelector('#softwares-search');
if (softwaresSearch) {
softwaresSearch.addEventListener('keyup', maxwell)
}
As far as I know, softwareSearch.addEventListener won't return anything, since that is an event listener, and does not return any value. It simply executes the function passed in the 2nd parameter. You could try doing this instead
softwaresSearch.addEventListener('keyup', () => {
var results = maxwell();
console.log(results);
});
What this would do is that, it would call your maxwell function when the keyup event, since that is what it looks you are trying to do.
Please share all relevant code before posting a question, this code includes the variable "softwares" that exist outside what is visible to us.
Additionally, there are some issues with your code.
I don't understand your naming of the maxwell function. You should name functions as verbs, not anything else. A function is a machine that is doing something, and possibly returning something. It should be named to what it is doing.
On the second line, you say "search = ... ", but you didn't declare it as a variable.
You are returning something based on a value that isn't validated ('search' can be either undefined or a string value in this case), hence, your return will most likely just return undefined and not any value at all.
Your function can possibly not return anything at all since you are returning something within your if-statement. You can use a closure to always return something.
I would also suggest passing a search string as a variable to your function that should return a list based on the search query. Getting in the habit of short, concise functions with expected inputs/outputs, will make your code more readable and less error-prone and less likely to produce unwanted side-effects.
I don't know the rest of your code, but I don't recommend assigning variables in the global scope. Your "maxwell", "softwareSearch" variables both exist in the global space, unless you have wrapped them in another function block already (such as jquerys $(document).ready(() => { ...everything here is scoped })
You are getting the same element in two different places in your code.
Here is an updated code sample, but I can't test it since I don't know the rest of your code.
/*
* Executing the whole thing in this IIFE will make all variables declared inside here scoped to this block only,
* thus they can't interfere with other code you may write
*/
(() => {
const listOfSoftwares = softwares; // --- get your softwares variable here somehow, I don't know where "software" comes from.
// input element
const search = document.querySelector('#softwares-search');
/**
* Filter search results
* #param {string} query Search query
* #returns {Array} The results array
*/
const filterSoftwareSearchResults = (query) => {
let results = [];
results = listOfSoftwares.filter(software => software.description.includes(query) || software.title.includes(query))
// Verify
console.log(results);
// Should return array of results, even if empty
return results;
}
if (search) {
search.addEventListener('keyup', () => {
filterSoftwareSearchResults(search.value)
})
}
})()
The addEventListener function always returns undefined, so your results variable is undefined.
Returning from the callback function (maxwell) is also of no use.
You either need to do something with the data inside of your callback, or maybe pass the data to a global variable.

Assign and Query Javascript Arrow Function for Metadata

The problem is rather simple. We need to imbue a function with a parameter, and then simply extract that parameter from the body of the function. I'll present the outline in typescript...
abstract class Puzzle {
abstract assign(param, fn): any;
abstract getAssignedValue(): any;
async test() {
const wrapped = this.assign(222, async () => {
return 555 + this.getAssignedValue();
});
console.log("Expecting", await wrapped(), "to be", 777);
}
}
Let's set the scene:
Assume strict mode, no arguments or callee. Should work reasonably well on the recent-ish version of v8.
The function passed to assign() must be an anonymous arrow function that doesn't take any parameters.
... and it's alsoasync. The assigned value could just be stored somewhere for the duration of the invocation, but because the function is async and can have awaits, you can't rely on the value keeping through multiple interleaved invocations.
this.getAssignedValue() takes no parameters, returning whatever we assigned with the assign() method.
Would be great to find a more elegant solution that those I've presented below.
Edit
Okay, we seem to have found a good solid solution inspired by zone.js. The same type of problem is solved there, and the solution is to override the meaning of some system-level primitives, such as SetTimeout and Promise. The only headache above was the async statement, which meant that the body of the function could be effectively reordered. Asyncs are ultimately triggered by promises, so you'll have to override your Promise with something that is context aware. It's quite involved, and because my use case is outside of browser or even node, I won't bore you with details. For most people hitting this kind of problem - just use zone.js.
Hacky Solution 2
class HackySolution2 extends Puzzle {
assign(param: any, fn: AnyFunction): AnyFunction {
const sub = Object(this);
sub["getAssignedValue"] = () => param;
return function () { return eval(fn.toString()); }.call(sub);
}
getAssignedValue() {
return undefined;
}
}
In this solution, I'm making an object that overrides the getAssignedValue() method, and re-evaluates the source code of the passed function, effectively changing the meaning of this. Still not quite production grade...
Edit.
Oops, this breaks closures.
I don't know typescript so possibly this isn't useful, but what about something like:
const build_assign_hooks = () => {
let assignment;
const get_value = () => assignment;
const assign = (param, fn) => {
assignment = param;
return fn;
}
return [assign, get_value];
};
class Puzzle {
constructor() {
const [assign, getAssignedValue] = build_assign_hooks();
this.assign = assign;
this.getAssignedValue = getAssignedValue;
}
async test() {
const wrapped = this.assign(222, async () => {
return 555 + this.getAssignedValue();
});
console.log("Expecting", await wrapped(), "to be", 777);
}
}
const puzzle = new Puzzle();
puzzle.test();
Hacky Solution 1
We actually have a working implementation. It's such a painful hack, but proves that this should be possible. Somehow. Maybe there's even a super simple solution that I'm missing just because I've been staring at this for too long.
class HackySolution extends Puzzle {
private readonly repo = {};
assign(param: any, fn) {
// code is a random field for repo. It must also be a valid JS fn name.
const code = 'd' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000001);
// Store the parameter with this code.
this.repo[code] = param;
// Create a function that has code as part of the name.
const name = `FN_TOKEN_${code}_END_TOKEN`;
const wrapper = new Function(`return function ${name}(){ return this(); }`)();
// Proceed with normal invocation, sending fn as the this argument.
return () => wrapper.call(fn);
}
getAssignedValue() {
// Comb through the stack trace for our FN_TOKEN / END_TOKEN pair, and extract the code.
const regex = /FN_TOKEN_(.*)_END_TOKEN/gm;
const code = regexGetFirstGroup(regex, new Error().stack);
return this.repo[code];
}
}
So the idea in our solution is to examine the stack trace of the new Error().stack, and wrap something we can extract as a token, which in turn we'll put into a repo. Hacky? Very hacky.
Notes
Testing shows that this is actually quite workable, but requires a more modern execution environment than we have - i.e. ES2017+.

Is it a good idea to overcharge a method?

I have 3 classes, all extend the previous one.
Entity -> Body -> Player
Each one has a die() method which do very different things.
Entity.die() will call the db
Body.die() will animate the body
Player.die() will call the UI and play special sound.
I don't want to manually call Entity.die() inside Body.die method, mainly because I have many classes and many common methods and I don't want to forget something.
I wrote this little piece of code which does exactly this, the Error stack is easy to understand and points to the correct lines.
function overLoadMethods (parent, children) {
const methods = {}
for (let [fname, fn] of Object.entries(parent)) {
if (typeof fn === 'function') {
if (children[fname]) {
methods[fname] = function () {
fn()
children[fname]()
}
Object.defineProperty(methods[fname], 'name', { value: fname })
} else {
methods[fname] = fn
}
}
}
return methods
}
function createEntity () {
return {
die: () => {
console.log(new Error().stack)
console.log('entity die')
}
}
}
const bodyMethods = {
die: () => {
console.log(new Error().stack)
console.log('body die')
}
}
function createBody () {
const entity = createEntity()
const overLoadedMethods = overLoadMethods(entity, bodyMethods)
return {
...entity,
...bodyMethods,
...overLoadedMethods
}
}
const playerMethods = {
die: () => {
console.log(new Error().stack)
console.log('player die')
}
}
function createPlayer () {
const body = createBody()
const overLoadedMethods = overLoadMethods(body, playerMethods)
return {
...body,
...playerMethods,
...overLoadedMethods
}
}
const player = createPlayer()
// will call Entity.die() then Body.die() then Player.die()
player.die()
Everything is working fine but I never saw this pattern before and I guess there is a good reason which I'm unaware of.
Could someone point the weakness of this pattern if there is one (pretty sure there is) ?
Common Lisp has something similar. When you define a method in a derived class you can decide whether this method should be executed:
:before (i.e. the base method will be called automatically after specialized one)
:after (i.e. the base method will be called automatically before the specialized one)
:around (i.e. only the specialized method will be called, but inside its body you can call the base method with call-next-method that is a special syntax that allows calling base method with either the parameters specified by the caller or the parameters that you want to pass instead).
For example C++ only has around available for general methods (but without the ability to call the base version with original parameters) and forces instead use of before in constructor and after in destructors.
I understand the desire to not repeat code and create code that makes it hard to make mistakes and forget things. But you still have code the you need to remember to wire up. For example, instead of calling Entity.die() you need to call overLoadMethods(). I'm not sure that's an improvement over regular of classes and calling super.die().
You can get the chained method behavior using ES6 classes (you can also get it using prototypes). This has a lot of advantages:
• The pattern is baked into the language.
• It's very clear to see parent/child relationship
• There's a lot of commentary, theory, and examples of different patterns
class Entity {
die() {
// Entity-specific behavior
console.log('entity die')
}
}
class Body extends Entity {
die() {
super.die()
// Body-specific behavior
console.log('body die')
}
}
class Player extends Body {
die() {
super.die()
// Player-specific behavior
console.log('player die')
}
}
const player = new Player
// will call Entity.die() then Body.die() then Player.die()
player.die()

Turn a for loop on an object into a .map

I have been told my function:
for (const key of Object.keys(temp)) {
this.sessionData.push(temp[key]);
}
Must now use a .map instead,
I have tried this below:
Object.keys(temp).map(function(key) {
this.sessionData[key];
})
But 1 I don't know if it's actually accurate, and also, it cant access the data outside of the scope of the function it is in, here is the whole function below:
public sessionData;
sessionDates(sessionsData) {
const temp = {};
this.sessionData = [];
sessionsData.forEach(session => {
const date = moment(session.startDatetime).format('DDMMYYYY');
if (temp[date]) {
temp[date].push(session);
} else {
temp[date] = [session];
}
});
Object.keys(temp).map(function(key) {
this.sessionData[key];
})
TRYING TO USE THIS BELOW... session data is undefined, it can't access out of the scope?
Object.keys(temp).map(function(key) {
this.sessionData[key];
})
But this works..
for (const key of Object.keys(temp)) {
this.sessionData.push(temp[key]);
}
So this new .map method can't access anything out of its scope.. sigh!
If anybody can help that would be amazing! Thanks!
In Javascript all functions can access variables from outside (called "higher scope") - it's one of the strengths of the language and is called "capture".
The reason your code is failing is because it's using this.sessionData inside a function declaration, which cases problems because this in javascript is... somewhat complex. But you don't need it!
You also need to make sure you return the value you want to output. Here's how I would write it:
this.sessionData = Object.keys(temp).map(key => temp[key]);

Javascript prototype function override when x

In my case, I'm using the Phaser framework.
So in this example I'm extending the Group class of phaser. Every 'actor' class (Sprite, Group, ...) calls upon the update() prototype every few miliseconds.
My idea was to extend this function only when the application runs on a desktop (so not on a phone).
for example:
var MousePointer = function (game, parent, name) {
Phaser.Group.call(this, game, parent, name);
this.init();
};
MousePointer.prototype = Object.create(Phaser.Group.prototype);
MousePointer.prototype.constructor = MousePointer;
MousePointer.prototype.init = function () {
// ... init
};
MousePointer.prototype.update = function () {
// Do something when on desktop
};
I can't possibly use an if clausule in the update() function to check whether the player is on dekstop/tablet/phone. So is there a way to actually override the prototype on initialisation?
for example (pseudocode):
if(onPhone)
MousePointer.prototype.update = parent.prototype.update;
else
MousePointer.prototype.update = this.update;
Well, you've kind of already written the answer for yourself, haven't you? This code (not inside the init method).
if(onPhone) {
MousePointer.prototype.update = function(){//Phone implementation};
} else {
MousePointer.prototype.update = function(){//Other implementation};
}
I advise against starting off with the "regular" function and then potentially overriding it, since you're just declaring it for nothing.
I think a better way to do this would be to write two different classes that shares the same parent, and then write different update() implementations for them. Then you can just do something like:
if(phone) {
var obj = new PhoneMousePointerObject();
} else {
var obj = new DesktopMousePointerObject();
}
// ... later
obj.update()

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