How to customize object equality for JavaScript Set

Question

New ES 6 (Harmony) introduces new Set object. Identity algorithm used by Set is similar to === operator and so not much suitable for comparing objects:

Answer 1

For Typescript users the answers by others (especially czerny) can be generalized to a nice type-safe and reusable base class:

/**
 * Map that stringifies the key objects in order to leverage
 * the javascript native Map and preserve key uniqueness.
 */
abstract class StringifyingMap {
    private map = new Map();
    private keyMap = new Map();

    has(key: K): boolean {
        let keyString = this.stringifyKey(key);
        return this.map.has(keyString);
    }
    get(key: K): V {
        let keyString = this.stringifyKey(key);
        return this.map.get(keyString);
    }
    set(key: K, value: V): StringifyingMap {
        let keyString = this.stringifyKey(key);
        this.map.set(keyString, value);
        this.keyMap.set(keyString, key);
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * Puts new key/value if key is absent.
     * @param key key
     * @param defaultValue default value factory
     */
    putIfAbsent(key: K, defaultValue: () => V): boolean {
        if (!this.has(key)) {
            let value = defaultValue();
            this.set(key, value);
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    keys(): IterableIterator {
        return this.keyMap.values();
    }

    keyList(): K[] {
        return [...this.keys()];
    }

    delete(key: K): boolean {
        let keyString = this.stringifyKey(key);
        let flag = this.map.delete(keyString);
        this.keyMap.delete(keyString);
        return flag;
    }

    clear(): void {
        this.map.clear();
        this.keyMap.clear();
    }

    size(): number {
        return this.map.size;
    }

    /**
     * Turns the `key` object to a primitive `string` for the underlying `Map`
     * @param key key to be stringified
     */
    protected abstract stringifyKey(key: K): string;
}

Example implementation is then this simple: just override the stringifyKey method. In my case I stringify some uri property.

class MyMap extends StringifyingMap {
    protected stringifyKey(key: MyKey): string {
        return key.uri.toString();
    }
}

Example usage is then as if this was a regular Map.

const key1 = new MyKey(1);
const value1 = new MyValue(1);
const value2 = new MyValue(2);

const myMap = new MyMap();
myMap.set(key1, value1);
myMap.set(key1, value2); // native Map would put another key/value pair

myMap.size(); // returns 1, not 2