Mnemonist - DefaultMap

A DefaultMap is simply a Map that will use the given factory to automatically create values for non-existing keys on demand.

It’s basically the same thing as python’s renowned defaultdict.

const DefaultMap = require('mnemonist/default-map');

Use case

Sometimes, it might be tedious to check whether a key exists in a map before initializing the attached value and then proceed to operate on it.

This is the exact problem DefaultMap tries to address.

Let’s say we want to have keys pointing to arrays of values:

const personsToGroup = {
  John: 1,
  Martha: 2,
  Philip: 1,
  Lenny: 3
}

// We want:
// Map {
//   1 => ['John', 'Philip'],
//   2 => ['Martha'],
//   3 => ['Lenny']
// }

// Using a Map
const map = new Map();

for (const person in personsToGroup) {
  const group = personsToGroup[person];

  // This is tedious & leads to more lookups if written carelessly
  if (!map.has(group))
    map.set(group, []);

  map.get(group).push(person);
}

// Using a DefaultMap
const map = new DefaultMap(() => []);

for (const person in personsToGroup) {
  const group = personsToGroup[person];

  map.get(group).push(person);
}

But there are plenty of other use cases. Why not use the DefaultMap with more complex containers?

// Maps K => <V, number>
const map = new DefaultMap(() => new MultiSet());

// Let's be creative :)
const map = new DefaultMap(() => new DefaultMap(() => []));

Constructor

The DefaultMap takes a factory function as single argument.

const map = new DefaultMap(() => []);

map.get('unknown').push(45);

// The factory takes the name of the key and the current size of the map
const map = new DefaultMap((key, size) => `${key}-${size}`);

Members & Methods

The DefaultMap has the exact same interface as JavaScript’s Map. Except for the following:

#.peek

#.peek

Same as #.get except that it won’t create a value using the provided factory if key is not found.

const map = new DefaultMap(() => []);

map.peek('one');
>>> undefined
map.size
>>> 0

Typical factories

autoIncrement

autoIncrement

A factory that will create a new incremental key for each unseen key.

const map = new DefaultMap(DefaultMap.autoIncrement());

map.get('unknown-one');
>>> 0
map.get('unknown-two');
>>> 1