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

In most modern browsers, there is a symbol primitive data type which can be used to create an enumeration. It will ensure type safety of the enum as each symbol value is guaranteed by JavaScript to be unique, i.e. Symbol() != Symbol(). For example:

const COLOR = Object.freeze({RED: Symbol(), BLUE: Symbol()});

To simplify debugging, you can add a description to enum values:

const COLOR = Object.freeze({RED: Symbol("RED"), BLUE: Symbol("BLUE")});

Plunker demo

On GitHub you can find a wrapper that simplifies the code required to initialize the enum:

const color = new Enum("RED", "BLUE")

color.RED.toString() // Symbol(RED)
color.getName(color.RED) // RED
color.size // 2
color.values() // Symbol(RED), Symbol(BLUE)
color.toString() // RED,BLUE

Answer 2

IE8 does Not support freeze() method.
Source: http://kangax.github.io/compat-table/es5/, Click on "Show obsolete browsers?" on top, and check IE8 & freeze row col intersection.

In my current game project, I have used below, since few customers still use IE8:

var CONST_WILD_TYPES = {
    REGULAR: 'REGULAR',
    EXPANDING: 'EXPANDING',
    STICKY: 'STICKY',
    SHIFTING: 'SHIFTING'
};

We could also do:

var CONST_WILD_TYPES = {
    REGULAR: 'RE',
    EXPANDING: 'EX',
    STICKY: 'ST',
    SHIFTING: 'SH'
};

or even this:

var CONST_WILD_TYPES = {
    REGULAR: '1',
    EXPANDING: '2',
    STICKY: '3',
    SHIFTING: '4'
};

The last one, seems most efficient for string, it reduces your total bandwidth if you have server & client exchanging this data.
Of course, now it's your duty to make sure there are no conflicts in the data (RE, EX, etc. must be unique, also 1, 2, etc. should be unique). Note that you need to maintain these forever for backward compatibility.

Assignment:

var wildType = CONST_WILD_TYPES.REGULAR;

Comparision:

if (wildType === CONST_WILD_TYPES.REGULAR) {
    // do something here
}

Answer 3

I came up with this approach which is modeled after enums in Java. These are type-safe, and so you can perform instanceof checks as well.

You can define enums like this:

var Days = Enum.define("Days", ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"]);

Days now refers to the Days enum:

Days.Monday instanceof Days; // true

Days.Friday.name(); // "Friday"
Days.Friday.ordinal(); // 4

Days.Sunday === Days.Sunday; // true
Days.Sunday === Days.Friday; // false

Days.Sunday.toString(); // "Sunday"

Days.toString() // "Days { Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday } "

Days.values().map(function(e) { return e.name(); }); //["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"]
Days.values()[4].name(); //"Friday"

Days.fromName("Thursday") === Days.Thursday // true
Days.fromName("Wednesday").name() // "Wednesday"
Days.Friday.fromName("Saturday").name() // "Saturday"

The implementation:

var Enum = (function () {
    /**
     * Function to define an enum
     * @param typeName - The name of the enum.
     * @param constants - The constants on the enum. Can be an array of strings, or an object where each key is an enum
     * constant, and the values are objects that describe attributes that can be attached to the associated constant.
     */
    function define(typeName, constants) {

        /** Check Arguments **/
        if (typeof typeName === "undefined") {
            throw new TypeError("A name is required.");
        }

        if (!(constants instanceof Array) && (Object.getPrototypeOf(constants) !== Object.prototype)) {

            throw new TypeError("The constants parameter must either be an array or an object.");

        } else if ((constants instanceof Array) && constants.length === 0) {

            throw new TypeError("Need to provide at least one constant.");

        } else if ((constants instanceof Array) && !constants.reduce(function (isString, element) {
                return isString && (typeof element === "string");
            }, true)) {

            throw new TypeError("One or more elements in the constant array is not a string.");

        } else if (Object.getPrototypeOf(constants) === Object.prototype && !Object.keys(constants).reduce(function (isObject, constant) {
                return Object.getPrototypeOf(constants[constant]) === Object.prototype;
            }, true)) {

            throw new TypeError("One or more constants do not have an associated object-value.");

        }

        var isArray = (constants instanceof Array);
        var isObject = !isArray;

        /** Private sentinel-object used to guard enum constructor so that no one else can create enum instances **/
        function __() { };

        /** Dynamically define a function with the same name as the enum we want to define. **/
        var __enum = new Function(["__"],
            "return function " + typeName + "(sentinel, name, ordinal) {" +
                "if(!(sentinel instanceof __)) {" +
                    "throw new TypeError(\"Cannot instantiate an instance of " + typeName + ".\");" +
                "}" +

                "this.__name = name;" +
                "this.__ordinal = ordinal;" +
            "}"
        )(__);

        /** Private objects used to maintain enum instances for values(), and to look up enum instances for fromName() **/
        var __values = [];
        var __dict = {};

        /** Attach values() and fromName() methods to the class itself (kind of like static methods). **/
        Object.defineProperty(__enum, "values", {
            value: function () {
                return __values;
            }
        });

        Object.defineProperty(__enum, "fromName", {
            value: function (name) {
                var __constant = __dict[name]
                if (__constant) {
                    return __constant;
                } else {
                    throw new TypeError(typeName + " does not have a constant with name " + name + ".");
                }
            }
        });

        /**
         * The following methods are available to all instances of the enum. values() and fromName() need to be
         * available to each constant, and so we will attach them on the prototype. But really, they're just
         * aliases to their counterparts on the prototype.
         */
        Object.defineProperty(__enum.prototype, "values", {
            value: __enum.values
        });

        Object.defineProperty(__enum.prototype, "fromName", {
            value: __enum.fromName
        });

        Object.defineProperty(__enum.prototype, "name", {
            value: function () {
                return this.__name;
            }
        });

        Object.defineProperty(__enum.prototype, "ordinal", {
            value: function () {
                return this.__ordinal;
            }
        });

        Object.defineProperty(__enum.prototype, "valueOf", {
            value: function () {
                return this.__name;
            }
        });

        Object.defineProperty(__enum.prototype, "toString", {
            value: function () {
                return this.__name;
            }
        });

        /**
         * If constants was an array, we can the element values directly. Otherwise, we will have to use the keys
         * from the constants object.
         */
        var _constants = constants;
        if (isObject) {
            _constants = Object.keys(constants);
        }

        /** Iterate over all constants, create an instance of our enum for each one, and attach it to the enum type **/
        _constants.forEach(function (name, ordinal) {
            // Create an instance of the enum
            var __constant = new __enum(new __(), name, ordinal);

            // If constants was an object, we want to attach the provided attributes to the instance.
            if (isObject) {
                Object.keys(constants[name]).forEach(function (attr) {
                    Object.defineProperty(__constant, attr, {
                        value: constants[name][attr]
                    });
                });
            }

            // Freeze the instance so that it cannot be modified.
            Object.freeze(__constant);

            // Attach the instance using the provided name to the enum type itself.
            Object.defineProperty(__enum, name, {
                value: __constant
            });

            // Update our private objects
            __values.push(__constant);
            __dict[name] = __constant;
        });

        /** Define a friendly toString method for the enum **/
        var string = typeName + " { " + __enum.values().map(function (c) {
                return c.name();
            }).join(", ") + " } ";

        Object.defineProperty(__enum, "toString", {
            value: function () {
                return string;
            }
        });

        /** Freeze our private objects **/
        Object.freeze(__values);
        Object.freeze(__dict);

        /** Freeze the prototype on the enum and the enum itself **/
        Object.freeze(__enum.prototype);
        Object.freeze(__enum);

        /** Return the enum **/
        return __enum;
    }

    return {
        define: define
    }

})();

Answer 4

This isn't much of an answer, but I'd say that works just fine, personally

Having said that, since it doesn't matter what the values are (you've used 0, 1, 2), I'd use a meaningful string in case you ever wanted to output the current value.

Answer 5

your answers are far too complicated

var buildSet = function(array) {
  var set = {};
  for (var i in array) {
    var item = array[i];
    set[item] = item;
  }
  return set;
}

var myEnum = buildSet(['RED','GREEN','BLUE']);
// myEnum.RED == 'RED' ...etc

Answer 6

As of writing, October 2014 - so here is a contemporary solution. Am writing the solution as a Node Module, and have included a test using Mocha and Chai, as well as underscoreJS. You can easily ignore these, and just take the Enum code if preferred.

Seen a lot of posts with overly convoluted libraries etc. The solution to getting enum support in Javascript is so simple it really isn't needed. Here is the code:

File: enums.js

_ = require('underscore');

var _Enum = function () {

   var keys = _.map(arguments, function (value) {
      return value;
   });
   var self = {
      keys: keys
   };
   for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
      self[keys[i]] = i;
   }
   return self;
};

var fileFormatEnum = Object.freeze(_Enum('CSV', 'TSV'));
var encodingEnum = Object.freeze(_Enum('UTF8', 'SHIFT_JIS'));

exports.fileFormatEnum = fileFormatEnum;
exports.encodingEnum = encodingEnum;

And a test to illustrate what it gives you:

file: enumsSpec.js

var chai = require("chai"),
    assert = chai.assert,
    expect = chai.expect,
    should = chai.should(),
    enums = require('./enums'),
    _ = require('underscore');


describe('enums', function () {

    describe('fileFormatEnum', function () {
        it('should return expected fileFormat enum declarations', function () {
            var fileFormatEnum = enums.fileFormatEnum;
            should.exist(fileFormatEnum);
            assert('{"keys":["CSV","TSV"],"CSV":0,"TSV":1}' === JSON.stringify(fileFormatEnum), 'Unexpected format');
            assert('["CSV","TSV"]' === JSON.stringify(fileFormatEnum.keys), 'Unexpected keys format');
        });
    });

    describe('encodingEnum', function () {
        it('should return expected encoding enum declarations', function () {
            var encodingEnum = enums.encodingEnum;
            should.exist(encodingEnum);
            assert('{"keys":["UTF8","SHIFT_JIS"],"UTF8":0,"SHIFT_JIS":1}' === JSON.stringify(encodingEnum), 'Unexpected format');
            assert('["UTF8","SHIFT_JIS"]' === JSON.stringify(encodingEnum.keys), 'Unexpected keys format');
        });
    });

});

As you can see, you get an Enum factory, you can get all the keys simply by calling enum.keys, and you can match the keys themselves to integer constants. And you can reuse the factory with different values, and export those generated Enums using Node's modular approach.

Once again, if you are just a casual user, or in the browser etc, just take the factory part of the code, potentially removing underscore library too if you don't wish to use it in your code.