insert an array with a custom name into a two dimensional array - javascript

Question

I have a two dimensional array which I created like this

var books = new Array();  // create an Array
        var book1 = new Array();
      book1.push("1");
      book1.push("adfgsdg");
      book1.push("dfgsdfg");
      book1.push("dfgds");
      book1.push("44.95");
      book1.push("dfgsd");
      book1.push("dfgsdg");
      books.push(book1);
    var book2 = new Array();
      book2.push("2");
      book2.push("gdhff");
      book2.push("fghfd");
      book2.push("fghdf");
      book2.push("44.95");
      book2.push("2000-12-16");
      book2.push("fghfghd");
      books.push(book2);

can you tell me how to dynamically create a new book3, book4.... array and push into the books array.

Answer 1

Just use an object:

var books = {book1: ['book1 title', 'book1 - title2']};
books['book2'] = ['book2 titles'];
books.book3 = [];//works, too
books.book3.push('foobar');

If you insist on having variables that reference a particular array, that's very easily done:

var book2 = books.book2;//arrays are objects, so:
book2.push('A second title');
console.log(books.book2[1]);//logs "A second title"

Easy-peasy. on the dynamic names front, just a quick example:

books['book' + someVar] = [];

Works just fine.

As @raghaw pointed out, perhaps you could do with some explaining:
JavaScript doesn't really support associative arrays as such, instead objects are used (even Array's are just "pimped" objects, but that's a different matter)

You can create a new instance of any object by calling the construct (new X(), like you did), but in case of native object types (like Array and Object), that's not to be recommended (new Array(10); and new Array('10') behave differently, for example).
In those cases the literal notation is to be preferred:

var wrong = new Object();//not "wrong", but impredictable 
var better = {};//or new [whateverTypeOfObject]();
//ditto for arrays:
var dangerous = new Array();
var safe = [];

To assign an object/array with a certain set of values already there, simply fill them in:

var myObject = {key: "value",
                theValue: {can: 'be',
                           anything: ["even", "another", "object"]}
               };

The data can be accessed both by using the dot-notation or the bracket notation:

console.log(myObject.theValue['can']);//be
//===
console.log(myObject.theValue.can);//be
//===
console.log(myObject["theValue"]["can"]);//be

If you're using variables as keys, you'll have to use the bracket notation. If you feel like you need more info check out MDN, spend some time on that site - it's a good reference on JS

Answer 2

First of all I think that the answer by Elias is very good. However, if you are not in the mood of going OO, just create books 3 and 4 as raghavv told in the comment, then push them all in the books array

books.push(books1);
books.push(books2);
books.push(books3);
books.push(books4);

The result of it will be actually something like

var books[
    books1[value1, value2, value3],
    books2[value1, value2, value3],
    books3[value1, value2, value3],
    books4[value1, value2, value3]
];