Monday 1 March 2021

Implementing ToDictionary in Typescript

In this article I will present some code I just did in my SimpleTsLinq library, which you can easily install using Npm. The library is here on Npmjs.com : The ToDictionary method looks like this:

  
  if (!Array.prototype.ToDictionary) {
  Array.prototype.ToDictionary = function <T>(keySelector: (arg: T) => any): any {
    let hash = {};
    this.map(item => {
      let key = keySelector(item);
      if (!(key in hash)) {
        hash[key] = item;
      }
      else {
        if (!(Array.isArray(hash[key]))) {
          hash[key] = [hash[key]];
        }
        hash[key].push(item);
      }
    });
    return hash;
  }
}
  

Here is a unit test (spec) for this method :

  
    it('can apply method ToDictionary on an array, allowing specificaton of a key selector for the dictionary object', () => {
    let heroes = [{ name: "Han Solo", age: 47, gender: "M" }, { name: "Leia", age: 29, gender: "F" }, { name: "Luke", age: 24, gender: "M" }, { name: "Lando", age: 47, gender: "M" }];
    let dictionaryOfHeroes = heroes.ToDictionary<Hero>(x => x.gender);

    let expectedDictionary = {
      "F": {
        name: "Leia", age: 29, gender: "F"
      },
      "M": [
        { name: "Han Solo", age: 47, gender: "M" },
        { name: "Luke", age: 24, gender: "M" },
        { name: "Lando", age: 47, gender: "M" }
      ]
    };
    expect(dictionaryOfHeroes).toEqual(expectedDictionary);
  });
  
  

You can also test out this library using Npm RunKit here: We can make a dictionary with different keys, image example:

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