How to create dictionary and add key–value pairs dynamically?

Question

From post:

Sending a JSON array to be received as a Dictionary

I’m trying to do this same thing as that post. The only issue is that I d

Answer 1

An improvement on var dict = {} is to use var dict = Object.create(null).

This will create an empty object that does not have Object.prototype as it's prototype.

var dict1 = {};
if (dict1["toString"]){
    console.log("Hey, I didn't put that there!")
}
var dict2 = Object.create(null);
if (dict2["toString"]){
    console.log("This line won't run :)")
}

Answer 2

JavaScript's Object is in itself like a dictionary. No need to reinvent the wheel.

var dict = {};

// Adding key-value -pairs
dict['key'] = 'value'; // Through indexer
dict.anotherKey = 'anotherValue'; // Through assignment

// Looping through
for (var item in dict) {
  console.log('key:' + item + ' value:' + dict[item]);
  // Output
  // key:key value:value
  // key:anotherKey value:anotherValue
}

// Non existent key
console.log(dict.notExist); // undefined

// Contains key?
if (dict.hasOwnProperty('key')) {
  // Remove item
  delete dict.key;
}

// Looping through
for (var item in dict) {
  console.log('key:' + item + ' value:' + dict[item]);
  // Output
  // key:anotherKey value:anotherValue
}

Fiddle

Answer 3

In modern javascript (ES6/ES2015), one should use Map data structure for dictionary. The Map data structure in ES6 lets you use arbitrary values as keys.

const map = new Map();
map.set("true", 1);
map.set("false", 0);

In you are still using ES5, the correct way to create dictionary is to create object without a prototype in the following way.

var map = Object.create(null);
map["true"]= 1;
map["false"]= 0;

There are many advantages of creating a dictionary without a prototype object. Below blogs are worth reading on this topic.

dict-pattern

objects-as-maps