What is the preferred syntax for defining enums in

Question

What is the preferred syntax for defining enums in JavaScript? Something like:

my.namespace.ColorEnum = {
    RED : 0,
    GREEN : 1,
    BLUE : 2
}

// later on

if(currentColor == my.namespace.ColorEnum.RED) {
   // whatever
}

Or is there a more preferable idiom?

Answer 1

Here's what we all want:

function Enum(constantsList) {
    for (var i in constantsList) {
        this[constantsList[i]] = i;
    }
}

Now you can create your enums:

var YesNo = new Enum(['NO', 'YES']);
var Color = new Enum(['RED', 'GREEN', 'BLUE']);

By doing this, constants can be acessed in the usual way (YesNo.YES, Color.GREEN) and they get a sequential int value (NO = 0, YES = 1; RED = 0, GREEN = 1, BLUE = 2).

You can also add methods, by using Enum.prototype:

Enum.prototype.values = function() {
    return this.allValues;
    /* for the above to work, you'd need to do
            this.allValues = constantsList at the constructor */
};

Edit - small improvement - now with varargs: (unfortunately it doesn't work properly on IE :S... should stick with previous version then)

function Enum() {
    for (var i in arguments) {
        this[arguments[i]] = i;
    }
}

var YesNo = new Enum('NO', 'YES');
var Color = new Enum('RED', 'GREEN', 'BLUE');

Answer 2

It's easy to use, I think. https://stackoverflow.com/a/32245370/4365315

var A = {a:11, b:22}, 
enumA = new TypeHelper(A);

if(enumA.Value === A.b || enumA.Key === "a"){ 
... 
}

var keys = enumA.getAsList();//[object, object]

//set
enumA.setType(22, false);//setType(val, isKey)

enumA.setType("a", true);

enumA.setTypeByIndex(1);

UPDATE:

There is my helper codes(TypeHelper).

var Helper = {
    isEmpty: function (obj) {
        return !obj || obj === null || obj === undefined || Array.isArray(obj) && obj.length === 0;
    },

    isObject: function (obj) {
        return (typeof obj === 'object');
    },

    sortObjectKeys: function (object) {
        return Object.keys(object)
            .sort(function (a, b) {
                c = a - b;
                return c
            });
    },
    containsItem: function (arr, item) {
        if (arr && Array.isArray(arr)) {
            return arr.indexOf(item) > -1;
        } else {
            return arr === item;
        }
    },

    pushArray: function (arr1, arr2) {
        if (arr1 && arr2 && Array.isArray(arr1)) {
            arr1.push.apply(arr1, Array.isArray(arr2) ? arr2 : [arr2]);
        }
    }
};
function TypeHelper() {
    var _types = arguments[0],
        _defTypeIndex = 0,
        _currentType,
        _value,
        _allKeys = Helper.sortObjectKeys(_types);

    if (arguments.length == 2) {
        _defTypeIndex = arguments[1];
    }

    Object.defineProperties(this, {
        Key: {
            get: function () {
                return _currentType;
            },
            set: function (val) {
                _currentType.setType(val, true);
            },
            enumerable: true
        },
        Value: {
            get: function () {
                return _types[_currentType];
            },
            set: function (val) {
                _value.setType(val, false);
            },
            enumerable: true
        }
    });
    this.getAsList = function (keys) {
        var list = [];
        _allKeys.forEach(function (key, idx, array) {
            if (key && _types[key]) {

                if (!Helper.isEmpty(keys) && Helper.containsItem(keys, key) || Helper.isEmpty(keys)) {
                    var json = {};
                    json.Key = key;
                    json.Value = _types[key];
                    Helper.pushArray(list, json);
                }
            }
        });
        return list;
    };

    this.setType = function (value, isKey) {
        if (!Helper.isEmpty(value)) {
            Object.keys(_types).forEach(function (key, idx, array) {
                if (Helper.isObject(value)) {
                    if (value && value.Key == key) {
                        _currentType = key;
                    }
                } else if (isKey) {
                    if (value && value.toString() == key.toString()) {
                        _currentType = key;
                    }
                } else if (value && value.toString() == _types[key]) {
                    _currentType = key;
                }
            });
        } else {
            this.setDefaultType();
        }
        return isKey ? _types[_currentType] : _currentType;
    };

    this.setTypeByIndex = function (index) {
        for (var i = 0; i < _allKeys.length; i++) {
            if (index === i) {
                _currentType = _allKeys[index];
                break;
            }
        }
    };

    this.setDefaultType = function () {
        this.setTypeByIndex(_defTypeIndex);
    };

    this.setDefaultType();
}

var TypeA = {
    "-1": "Any",
    "2": "2L",
    "100": "100L",
    "200": "200L",
    "1000": "1000L"
};

var enumA = new TypeHelper(TypeA, 4);

document.writeln("Key = ", enumA.Key,", Value = ", enumA.Value, "<br>");


enumA.setType("200L", false);
document.writeln("Key = ", enumA.Key,", Value = ", enumA.Value, "<br>");

enumA.setDefaultType();
document.writeln("Key = ", enumA.Key,", Value = ", enumA.Value, "<br>");


enumA.setTypeByIndex(1);
document.writeln("Key = ", enumA.Key,", Value = ", enumA.Value, "<br>");

document.writeln("is equals = ", (enumA.Value == TypeA["2"]));

Answer 3

Bottom line: You can't.

You can fake it, but you won't get type safety. Typically this is done by creating a simple dictionary of string values mapped to integer values. For example:

var DaysEnum = {"monday":1, "tuesday":2, "wednesday":3, ...}

Document.Write("Enumerant: " + DaysEnum.tuesday);

The problem with this approach? You can accidentally redefine your enumerant, or accidentally have duplicate enumerant values. For example:

DaysEnum.monday = 4; // whoops, monday is now thursday, too

Edit

What about Artur Czajka's Object.freeze? Wouldn't that work to prevent you from setting monday to thursday? – Fry Quad

Absolutely, Object.freeze would totally fix the problem I complained about. I would like to remind everyone that when I wrote the above, Object.freeze didn't really exist.

Now.... now it opens up some very interesting possibilities.

Edit 2
Here's a very good library for creating enums.

http://www.2ality.com/2011/10/enums.html

While it probably doesn't fit every valid use of enums, it goes a very long way.

Answer 4

In ES7 , you can do an elegant ENUM relying on static attributes:

class ColorEnum  {
    static RED = 0 ;
    static GREEN = 1;
    static BLUE = 2;
}

then

if (currentColor === ColorEnum.GREEN ) {/*-- coding --*/}

The advantage ( of using class instead of literal object) is to have a parent class Enum then all your Enums will extends that class.

 class ColorEnum  extends Enum {/*....*/}

Answer 5

A quick and simple way would be :

var Colors = function(){
return {
    'WHITE':0,
    'BLACK':1,
    'RED':2,
    'GREEN':3
    }
}();

console.log(Colors.WHITE)  //this prints out "0"

Answer 6

I've been playing around with this, as I love my enums. =)

Using Object.defineProperty I think I came up with a somewhat viable solution.

Here's a jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/ZV4A6/

Using this method.. you should (in theory) be able to call and define enum values for any object, without affecting other attributes of that object.

Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype,'Enum', {
    value: function() {
        for(i in arguments) {
            Object.defineProperty(this,arguments[i], {
                value:parseInt(i),
                writable:false,
                enumerable:true,
                configurable:true
            });
        }
        return this;
    },
    writable:false,
    enumerable:false,
    configurable:false
}); 

Because of the attribute writable:false this should make it type safe.

So you should be able to create a custom object, then call Enum() on it. The values assigned start at 0 and increment per item.

var EnumColors={};
EnumColors.Enum('RED','BLUE','GREEN','YELLOW');
EnumColors.RED;    // == 0
EnumColors.BLUE;   // == 1
EnumColors.GREEN;  // == 2
EnumColors.YELLOW; // == 3