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 a couple different ways to implement TypeScript enums.

The easiest way is to just iterate over an object, adding inverted key-value pairs to the object. The only drawback is that you must manually set the value for each member.

function _enum(list) {       
  for (var key in list) {
    list[list[key] = list[key]] = key;
  }
  return Object.freeze(list);
}

var Color = _enum({
  Red: 0,
  Green: 5,
  Blue: 2
});

// Color → {0: "Red", 2: "Blue", 5: "Green", "Red": 0, "Green": 5, "Blue": 2}
// Color.Red → 0
// Color.Green → 5
// Color.Blue → 2
// Color[5] → Green
// Color.Blue > Color.Green → false

And here's a lodash mixin to create an enum using a string. While this version is a little bit more involved, it does the numbering automatically for you. All the lodash methods used in this example have a regular JavaScript equivalent, so you can easily switch them out if you want.

function enum() {
    var key, val = -1, list = {};
    _.reduce(_.toArray(arguments), function(result, kvp) {    
        kvp = kvp.split("=");
        key = _.trim(kvp[0]);
        val = _.parseInt(kvp[1]) || ++val;            
        result[result[val] = key] = val;
        return result;
    }, list);
    return Object.freeze(list);
}    

// Add enum to lodash 
_.mixin({ "enum": enum });

var Color = _.enum(
    "Red",
    "Green",
    "Blue = 5",
    "Yellow",
    "Purple = 20",
    "Gray"
);

// Color.Red → 0
// Color.Green → 1
// Color.Blue → 5
// Color.Yellow → 6
// Color.Purple → 20
// Color.Gray → 21
// Color[5] → Blue

Answer 2

Create an object literal:

const Modes = {
  DRAGGING: 'drag',
  SCALING:  'scale',
  CLICKED:  'click'
};

Answer 3

Use Javascript Proxies

TLDR: Add this class to your utility methods and use it throughout your code, it mocks Enum behavior from traditional programming languages, and actually throws errors when you try to either access an enumerator that does not exist or add/update an enumerator. No need to rely on Object.freeze().

class Enum {
  constructor(enumObj) {
    const handler = {
      get(target, name) {
        if (target[name]) {
          return target[name];
        }
        throw new Error(`No such enumerator: ${name}`);
      },
      set() {
        throw new Error('Cannot add/update properties on an Enum instance after it is defined')
      }
    };

    return new Proxy(enumObj, handler);
  }
}

Then create enums by instantiating the class:

const roles = new Enum({
  ADMIN: 'Admin',
  USER: 'User',
});

---

Full Explanation:

One very beneficial feature of Enums that you get from traditional languages is that they blow up (throw a compile-time error) if you try to access an enumerator which does not exist.

Besides freezing the mocked enum structure to prevent additional values from accidentally/maliciously being added, none of the other answers address that intrinsic feature of Enums.

As you are probably aware, accessing non-existing members in JavaScript simply returns undefined and does not blow up your code. Since enumerators are predefined constants (i.e. days of the week), there should never be a case when an enumerator should be undefined.

Don't get me wrong, JavaScript's behavior of returning undefined when accessing undefined properties is actually a very powerful feature of language, but it's not a feature you want when you are trying to mock traditional Enum structures.

This is where Proxy objects shine. Proxies were standardized in the language with the introduction of ES6 (ES2015). Here's the description from MDN:

The Proxy object is used to define custom behavior for fundamental operations (e.g. property lookup, assignment, enumeration, function invocation, etc).

Similar to a web server proxy, JavaScript proxies are able to intercept operations on objects (with the use of "traps", call them hooks if you like) and allow you to perform various checks, actions and/or manipulations before they complete (or in some cases stopping the operations altogether which is exactly what we want to do if and when we try to reference an enumerator which does not exist).

Here's a contrived example that uses the Proxy object to mimic Enums. The enumerators in this example are standard HTTP Methods (i.e. "GET", "POST", etc.):

// Class for creating enums (13 lines)
// Feel free to add this to your utility library in 
// your codebase and profit! Note: As Proxies are an ES6 
// feature, some browsers/clients may not support it and 
// you may need to transpile using a service like babel

class Enum {
  // The Enum class instantiates a JavaScript Proxy object.
  // Instantiating a `Proxy` object requires two parameters, 
  // a `target` object and a `handler`. We first define the handler,
  // then use the handler to instantiate a Proxy.

  // A proxy handler is simply an object whose properties
  // are functions which define the behavior of the proxy 
  // when an operation is performed on it. 
  
  // For enums, we need to define behavior that lets us check what enumerator
  // is being accessed and what enumerator is being set. This can be done by 
  // defining "get" and "set" traps.
  constructor(enumObj) {
    const handler = {
      get(target, name) {
        if (target[name]) {
          return target[name]
        }
        throw new Error(`No such enumerator: ${name}`)
      },
      set() {
        throw new Error('Cannot add/update properties on an Enum instance after it is defined')
      }
    }


    // Freeze the target object to prevent modifications
    return new Proxy(enumObj, handler)
  }
}


// Now that we have a generic way of creating Enums, lets create our first Enum!
const httpMethods = new Enum({
  DELETE: "DELETE",
  GET: "GET",
  OPTIONS: "OPTIONS",
  PATCH: "PATCH",
  POST: "POST",
  PUT: "PUT"
})

// Sanity checks
console.log(httpMethods.DELETE)
// logs "DELETE"

try {
  httpMethods.delete = "delete"
} catch (e) {
console.log("Error: ", e.message)
}
// throws "Cannot add/update properties on an Enum instance after it is defined"

try {
  console.log(httpMethods.delete)
} catch (e) {
  console.log("Error: ", e.message)
}
// throws "No such enumerator: delete"

---

ASIDE: What the heck is a proxy?

I remember when I first started seeing the word proxy everywhere, it definitely didn't make sense to me for a long time. If that's you right now, I think an easy way to generalize proxies is to think of them as software, institutions, or even people that act as intermediaries or middlemen between two servers, companies, or people.

Answer 4

I've modified the solution of Andre 'Fi':

  function Enum() {
    var that = this;
    for (var i in arguments) {
        that[arguments[i]] = i;
    }
    this.name = function(value) {
        for (var key in that) {
            if (that[key] == value) {
                return key;
            }
        }
    };
    this.exist = function(value) {
        return (typeof that.name(value) !== "undefined");
    };
    if (Object.freeze) {
        Object.freeze(that);
    }
  }

Test:

var Color = new Enum('RED', 'GREEN', 'BLUE');
undefined
Color.name(Color.REDs)
undefined
Color.name(Color.RED)
"RED"
Color.exist(Color.REDs)
false
Color.exist(Color.RED)
true

Answer 5

var ColorEnum = {
    red: {},
    green: {},
    blue: {}
}

You don't need to make sure you don't assign duplicate numbers to different enum values this way. A new object gets instantiated and assigned to all enum values.

Answer 6

I've made an Enum class that can fetch values AND names at O(1). It can also generate an Object Array containing all Names and Values.

function Enum(obj) {
    // Names must be unique, Values do not.
    // Putting same values for different Names is risky for this implementation

    this._reserved = {
        _namesObj: {},
        _objArr: [],
        _namesArr: [],
        _valuesArr: [],
        _selectOptionsHTML: ""
    };

    for (k in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(k)) {
            this[k] = obj[k];
            this._reserved._namesObj[obj[k]] = k;
        }
    }
}
(function () {
    this.GetName = function (val) {
        if (typeof this._reserved._namesObj[val] === "undefined")
            return null;
        return this._reserved._namesObj[val];
    };

    this.GetValue = function (name) {
        if (typeof this[name] === "undefined")
            return null;
        return this[name];
    };

    this.GetObjArr = function () {
        if (this._reserved._objArr.length == 0) {
            var arr = [];
            for (k in this) {
                if (this.hasOwnProperty(k))
                    if (k != "_reserved")
                        arr.push({
                            Name: k,
                            Value: this[k]
                        });
            }
            this._reserved._objArr = arr;
        }
        return this._reserved._objArr;
    };

    this.GetNamesArr = function () {
        if (this._reserved._namesArr.length == 0) {
            var arr = [];
            for (k in this) {
                if (this.hasOwnProperty(k))
                    if (k != "_reserved")
                        arr.push(k);
            }
            this._reserved._namesArr = arr;
        }
        return this._reserved._namesArr;
    };

    this.GetValuesArr = function () {
        if (this._reserved._valuesArr.length == 0) {
            var arr = [];
            for (k in this) {
                if (this.hasOwnProperty(k))
                    if (k != "_reserved")
                        arr.push(this[k]);
            }
            this._reserved._valuesArr = arr;
        }
        return this._reserved._valuesArr;
    };

    this.GetSelectOptionsHTML = function () {
        if (this._reserved._selectOptionsHTML.length == 0) {
            var html = "";
            for (k in this) {
                if (this.hasOwnProperty(k))
                    if (k != "_reserved")
                        html += "<option value='" + this[k] + "'>" + k + "</option>";
            }
            this._reserved._selectOptionsHTML = html;
        }
        return this._reserved._selectOptionsHTML;
    };
}).call(Enum.prototype);

You can init'd it like this:

var enum1 = new Enum({
    item1: 0,
    item2: 1,
    item3: 2
});

To fetch a value (like Enums in C#):

var val2 = enum1.item2;

To fetch a name for a value (can be ambiguous when putting the same value for different names):

var name1 = enum1.GetName(0);  // "item1"

To get an array with each name & value in an object:

var arr = enum1.GetObjArr();

Will generate:

[{ Name: "item1", Value: 0}, { ... }, ... ]

You can also get the html select options readily:

var html = enum1.GetSelectOptionsHTML();

Which holds:

"<option value='0'>item1</option>..."