The question I have is best given by way of this jsfiddle, the code for which is below:
var a = 1, b = \'x\', c = true;
var d = {a: a, b: b, c: c}; // <--- object literal
var e = [a, b, c]; // <--- array
var f = {a, b, c}; // <--- what exactly is this??
// these all give the same output:
alert(d.a + \', \' + d.b + \', \' + d.c );
alert(e[0] + \', \' + e[1] + \', \' + e[2]);
alert(f.a + \', \' + f.b + \', \' + f.c );
What sort of a data structure is f
? Is it just a shorthand for d
?
It is an Object Initializer Property Shorthand in ES6.
var f = {a, b, c, d:1}; // Will be equal to {a:a, b:b, c:c, d:1}
This works because the property value has the same name as the property identifier. This a new addition to the syntax of Object Initialiser (section 11.1.5) in the latest ECMAScript 6 draft Rev 13. And of course, just like the limitations set from ECMAScript 3, you can’t use a reserved word as your property name.
Such a shorthand won’t dramatically change your code, it only makes everything a little bit sweeter!
function createCar(name, brand, speed) {
return { type: \'Car\', name: name, brand: brand, speed: speed };
}
// With the new shorthand form
function createSweetCar(name, brand, speed) {
return { type: \'Car\', name, brand, speed }; // Yes it looks sweet.
}
Please see the compatibility table for support for these notations. In non-supporting environments, these notations will lead to syntax errors.
This shorthand notation offers object matching pretty nicely:
In ECMAScript5 what we used to do:
var tmp = getDate();
var op = tmp.op;
var lhs = tmp.lhs;
var rhs = tmp.rhs;
Can be done in ECMAScript6 with a single line of code:
var { op, lhs, rhs } = getData();
var f = {a, b, c};
It came with ES6 (ECMAScript 2015) and means exactly the same as:
var f = {a: a, b: b, c: c};
It is called Object Literal Property Value Shorthands (or simply property value shorthand, shorthand properties).
You can also combine shorthands with classical initialization:
var f = {a: 1, b, c};
For more information see Object initializer.
var f = {a, b, c}; // <--- what exactly is this??
It defines an object in JavaScript using the new ECMAScript 2015 notation:
As per Mozilla Developer Network:
\"Objects can be initialized using new Object(), Object.create(), or using the literal notation (initializer notation). An object initializer is a list of zero or more pairs of property names and associated values of an object, enclosed in curly braces ({}).\"
var a = \"foo\",
b = 42,
c = {};
// Shorthand property names (ES6)
var o = { a, b, c };
is equivalent to:
var a = \"foo\",
b = 42,
c = {};
var o = {
a: a,
b: b,
c: c
};