up vote 0 down vote favorite

Considering this data structure:

var vehicles = [
  [ "2011","Honda","Accord" ],
  [ "2010","Honda","Accord" ],
  .....
];

Looping through each vehicles item, is there a way to reassign the array elements to individual variables all in one shot, something like:

for (i = 0; i < vehicles.length; i++) {
  var(year,make,model) = vehicles[i]; // doesn't work
  .....
}

... I'm trying to get away from doing:

for (i = 0; i < vehicles.length; i++) {
  var year = vehicles[i][0];
  var make = vehicles[i][1];
  var model = vehicles[i][2];
  .....
}

Just curious since this type of thing is available in other programming languages. Thanks!

share|improve this question

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

No unfortunately there is not a method to do this currently XBrowser. (that I'm aware of).

Relatively soon it's possible cross browser, see link:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/New_in_JavaScript_1.7

(In PHP there is "list" which will do exactly what you wish, nothing similar XBrowser for javascript yet)

Of course relatively soon could mean anything etc. (Thanks Felix for pointing out my errors in this)

share|improve this answer
+1 (Link is truncated. Just FYI.) – polarblau Jan 12 '11 at 16:46
@Felix, good point. My meaning was this is not supported (that I'm aware of) cross browser (modern IE through modern webkit). Will edit to make that clearer, thanks. – Jason Benson Jan 12 '11 at 16:48
Thanks. That'll be nice. In Perl you can just do the straight assignment: my($first,$second,$third,...) = @array; .. maybe one of the few simple things about Perl? :) – Wick Jan 12 '11 at 16:49
up vote 1 down vote

Probably the closest you'll currently get in javascript is to eliminate the redundant var and separate the statements with a comma separator.

for (i = 0; i < vehicles.length; i++) {
  var year = vehicles[i][0], make = vehicles[i][1], model = vehicles[i][2];
  .....
}

or you could shorten it a bit more like this:

for (i = 0; i < vehicles.length; i++) {
  var v = vehicles[i], year = v[0], make = v[1], model = v[2];
  .....
}
share|improve this answer
1  
oooh good answer, that's pretty damn close. – Wick Jan 12 '11 at 16:53
up vote 0 down vote

The closest alternative that I could think of is using a function and using apply() to call it. Passing an array, it would get passed as each argument.

function vehicle(year, make, model) {
    // do stuff
}

for (i = 0; i < vehicles.length; i++) {
    vehicle.apply (this, vehicles[i]);
}

Or an anonymous function:

for (i = 0; i < vehicles.length; i++) {
    (function(year, make, model) {
        // do stuff
    }).apply(this, vehicles[i]);
}
share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.