JavaScript Object/Array newbie (using jQuery)

Question

I have a function which needs to return either an array or object. I'm not sure which is best and I'm not sure how to construct it. Here's what I have so far. Pay close attention to the comments in ALL CAPS. The idea is to loop through a set of td cells that contain a 'data-field' attribute, and use the name of the attribute as the variable name and the text contained within the td as the value. The number of properties or values of the array/object are unknown. Depending on what was clicked to enter into the function, 2-6 values will be needed.

function InlineEditMode(rowID, entryType) {
// store current row data in case of cancel
var original = $('#'+rowID).contents();

// DEFINE SOME ARRAY OR OBJECT HERE
// put original values in the newEntry Array with a loop, using the 
// data-field attributes as the name of the array or object variables
// and the text of the td as the value
$('#'+rowID+' td[data-field]').each(function() {
    var field = $(this).attr('data-field');
    var value = $(this).text();

    // BUILD OUT OBJECT OR ARRAY
});
// RETURN ARRAY OR OBJECT
}

Sounds like you need a hashmap/associative array

Mike Tunnicliffe
– Mike Tunnicliffe

2011-02-03 20:52:35 +00:00
Commented Feb 3, 2011 at 20:52 — Mike Tunnicliffe
– Mike Tunnicliffe, Commented Feb 3, 2011 at 20:52

JoeyRobichaud · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-03 20:51:37Z

2

I believe something like this would work for your purposes.

function InlineEditMode(rowID, entryType) {
// store current row data in case of cancel
var original = $('#'+rowID).contents();

// DEFINE SOME ARRAY OR OBJECT HERE
var buildup = {};

// put original values in the newEntry Array with a loop, using the 
// data-field attributes as the name of the array or object variables
// and the text of the td as the value
$('#'+rowID+' td[data-field]').each(function() {
    var field = $(this).attr('data-field');
    var value = $(this).text();

    // BUILD OUT OBJECT OR ARRAY
    buildup[field] = value;
});
// RETURN ARRAY OR OBJECT

return buildup;
}

answered Feb 3, 2011 at 20:51

JoeyRobichaud

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7 Comments

Ben Over a year ago

why is var buildup defined with the curly brackets {} instead of []. I thought {} was for objects and [] for arrays.

JoeyRobichaud Over a year ago

Buildup is an object. The notation buildup["foo"] = "Fii" is the same as saying buildup.foo = "Fii".

Ben Over a year ago

I didn't know that. I much prefer buildup.foo , but i guess I can't use my field and value variables then... is that right?

JoeyRobichaud Over a year ago

Arrays would not be a good container for name-value pairs. Are you wanting to support arrays? How would you expect the name-value pairs to be stored within the array?

Ben Over a year ago

I agree that objects are better. I was just trying to do it like this: buildup.field = value which wasn't working

|

Steve · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-03 20:52:25Z

1

Try this:

function InlineEditMode(rowID, entryType) {
// store current row data in case of cancel
var original = $('#'+rowID).contents();

var toReturn = {};

// DEFINE SOME ARRAY OR OBJECT HERE
// put original values in the newEntry Array with a loop, using the 
// data-field attributes as the name of the array or object variables
// and the text of the td as the value
$('#'+rowID+' td[data-field]').each(function() {
    var field = $(this).attr('data-field');
    var value = $(this).text();

    toReturn[field] = value;
});
// RETURN ARRAY OR OBJECT
return toReturn;
}

answered Feb 3, 2011 at 20:52

Steve

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