Convert JavaScript array of 2 element arrays into object key value pairs
What is the fastest algorithm for getting from something like this:
var array = [ [1,'a'], [2,'b'], [3,'c'] ];
to something like this:
Object { 1: "a", 2: "b", 3: "c" }
so far this is what i've come up with:
function objectify(array) {
var object = {};
array.forEach(function(element) {
object[element[0]] = element[1];
});
return object;
}
which works fine, but it seems kind of clumsy. Is there a better way? Would something like reduce() work and would that be any faster?
With Object.fromEntries
, you can convert from Array
to Object
:
var array = [
[1, 'a'],
[2, 'b'],
[3, 'c']
];
var object = Object.fromEntries(array);
console.log(object);
You could indeed use Array.prototype.reduce
:
function objectify(array) {
return array.reduce(function(p, c) {
p[c[0]] = c[1];
return p;
}, {});
}
where p
is the result of the previous iteration, initially {}
, and c
is the current element of the array.
It's unlikely to be any faster than array.forEach
, but it is IMHO cleaner. I don't believe there's any simpler implementation than this.
NB: a function to do exactly this already exists in the Underscore library: _.object(array)
Terse version using modern syntax:
let objectify = a => a.reduce( (o,[k,v]) => (o[k]=v,o), {} );
I use this technique as part of a terse query string parser:
// Converts "?foo=bar&j=1&go" into { foo:'bar', j:'1', go:true }
function parseQueryString(qs) {
var q = decodeURIComponent;
return qs.replace(/^\?/,'').split('&').map(s => s.split('='))
.reduce((o,[k,v]) => (o[q(k)] = v?q(v):true, o), {});
}
Lodash has a _.fromPairs
method that does exactly that.
From the documentation:
_.fromPairs([['a', 1], ['b', 2]]);
// => { 'a': 1, 'b': 2 }
You can wrap the entire thing within Array.prototype.reduce
, like this
function objectify(array) {
return array.reduce(function(result, currentArray) {
result[currentArray[0]] = currentArray[1];
return result;
}, {});
}
console.log(objectify([ [1, 'a'], [2, 'b'], [3, 'c'] ]));
# { '1': 'a', '2': 'b', '3': 'c' }
We are just accumulating the key-value pairs in the result
object and finally the result of reduce
will be the result
object and we are returning it as the actual result.