i need to make a dictionary in javascript like this

i dont remember the exact notation, but it was something like:

states_dictionary={ CT=[alex,harry], AK=[liza,alex], TX=[fred, harry] ........ }

is there such a thing in javascript?

This is an old post, but I thought I should provide an illustrated answer anyway.

Use javascript’s object notation. Like so:

states_dictionary={ 
     "CT":["alex","harry"], 
     "AK":["liza","alex"], 
     "TX":["fred", "harry"]
};

And to access the values:

states_dictionary.AK[0] //which is liza

or you can use javascript literal object notation, whereby the keys not require to be in quotes:

states_dictionary={ 
     CT:["alex","harry"], 
     AK:["liza","alex"], 
     TX:["fred", "harry"]
};

There were no real associative arrays in Javascript until 2015 (release of ECMAScript 6). Since then you can use the Map object as Robocat states. Look up the details in MDN. Example:

let map = new Map();
map.set('key', {'value1', 'value2'});
let values = map.get('key');

Without support for ES6 you can try using objects:

var x = new Object();
x["Key"] = "Value";

However with objects it is not possible to use typical array properties or methods like array.length. At least it is possible to access the “object-array” in a for-in-loop.

I realize this is an old question, but it pops up in Google when you search for ‘javascript dictionaries’, so I’d like to add to the above answers that in ECMAScript 6, the official Map object has been introduced, which is a dictionary implementation:

var dict = new Map();
dict.set("foo", "bar");

//returns "bar"
dict.get("foo");

Unlike javascript’s normal objects, it allows any object as a key:

var foo = {};
var bar = {};
var dict = new Map();
dict.set(foo, "Foo");
dict.set(bar, "Bar");

//returns "Bar"
dict.get(bar);

//returns "Foo"
dict.get(foo);

//returns undefined, as {} !== foo and {} !== bar
dict.get({});

Have created a simple dictionary in JS here:

function JSdict() {
    this.Keys = [];
    this.Values = [];
}

// Check if dictionary extensions aren't implemented yet.
// Returns value of a key
if (!JSdict.prototype.getVal) {
    JSdict.prototype.getVal = function (key) {
        if (key == null) {
            return "Key cannot be null";
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < this.Keys.length; i++) {
            if (this.Keys[i] == key) {
                return this.Values[i];
            }
        }
        return "Key not found!";
    }
}


// Check if dictionary extensions aren't implemented yet.
// Updates value of a key
if (!JSdict.prototype.update) {
    JSdict.prototype.update = function (key, val) {
        if (key == null || val == null) {
            return "Key or Value cannot be null";
        }
        // Verify dict integrity before each operation
        if (keysLength != valsLength) {
            return "Dictionary inconsistent. Keys length don't match values!";
        }
        var keysLength = this.Keys.length;
        var valsLength = this.Values.length;
        var flag = false;
        for (var i = 0; i < keysLength; i++) {
            if (this.Keys[i] == key) {
                this.Values[i] = val;
                flag = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        if (!flag) {
            return "Key does not exist";
        }
    }
}



// Check if dictionary extensions aren't implemented yet.
// Adds a unique key value pair
if (!JSdict.prototype.add) {
    JSdict.prototype.add = function (key, val) {
        // Allow only strings or numbers as keys
        if (typeof (key) == "number" || typeof (key) == "string") {
            if (key == null || val == null) {
                return "Key or Value cannot be null";
            }
            if (keysLength != valsLength) {
                return "Dictionary inconsistent. Keys length don't match values!";
            }
            var keysLength = this.Keys.length;
            var valsLength = this.Values.length;
            for (var i = 0; i < keysLength; i++) {
                if (this.Keys[i] == key) {
                    return "Duplicate keys not allowed!";
                }
            }
            this.Keys.push(key);
            this.Values.push(val);
        }
        else {
            return "Only number or string can be key!";
        }
    }
}

// Check if dictionary extensions aren't implemented yet.
// Removes a key value pair
if (!JSdict.prototype.remove) {
    JSdict.prototype.remove = function (key) {
        if (key == null) {
            return "Key cannot be null";
        }
        if (keysLength != valsLength) {
            return "Dictionary inconsistent. Keys length don't match values!";
        }
        var keysLength = this.Keys.length;
        var valsLength = this.Values.length;
        var flag = false;
        for (var i = 0; i < keysLength; i++) {
            if (this.Keys[i] == key) {
                this.Keys.shift(key);
                this.Values.shift(this.Values[i]);
                flag = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        if (!flag) {
            return "Key does not exist";
        }
    }
}

The above implementation can now be used to simulate a dictionary as:

var dict = new JSdict();

dict.add(1, "one")

dict.add(1, "one more")
"Duplicate keys not allowed!"

dict.getVal(1)
"one"

dict.update(1, "onne")

dict.getVal(1)
"onne"

dict.remove(1)

dict.getVal(1)
"Key not found!"

This is just a basic simulation. It can be further optimized by implementing a better running time algorithm to work in atleast O(nlogn) time complexity or even less. Like merge/quick sort on arrays and then some B-search for lookups. I Didn’t give a try or searched about mapping a hash function in JS.

Also, Key and Value for the JSdict obj can be turned into private variables to be sneaky.

Hope this helps!

EDIT >> After implementing the above, I personally used the JS objects as associative arrays that are available out-of-the-box.

However, I would like to make a special mention about two methods that actually proved helpful to make it a convenient hashtable experience.

Viz: dict.hasOwnProperty(key) and delete dict[key]

Read this post as a good resource on this implementation/usage. Dynamically creating keys in JavaScript associative array

THanks!

Use JavaScript objects. You can access their properties like keys in a dictionary. This is the foundation of JSON. The syntax is similar to Python dictionaries. See: JSON.org

An old question but I recently needed to do an AS3>JS port, and for the sake of speed I wrote a simple AS3-style Dictionary object for JS:

http://jsfiddle.net/MickMalone1983/VEpFf/2/

If you didn’t know, the AS3 dictionary allows you to use any object as the key, as opposed to just strings. They come in very handy once you’ve found a use for them.

It’s not as fast as a native object would be, but I’ve not found any significant problems with it in that respect.

API:

//Constructor
var dict = new Dict(overwrite:Boolean);

//If overwrite, allows over-writing of duplicate keys,
//otherwise, will not add duplicate keys to dictionary.

dict.put(key, value);//Add a pair
dict.get(key);//Get value from key
dict.remove(key);//Remove pair by key
dict.clearAll(value);//Remove all pairs with this value
dict.iterate(function(key, value){//Send all pairs as arguments to this function:
    console.log(key+' is key for '+value);
});


dict.get(key);//Get value from key

Firefox 13+ provides an experimental implementation of the map object similar to the dict object in python. Specifications here.

It’s only avaible in firefox, but it looks better than using attributes of a new Object(). Citation from the documentation :

• An Object has a prototype, so there are default keys in the map. However, this can be bypassed using map = Object.create(null).
• The keys of an Object are Strings, where they can be any value for a Map.
• You can get the size of a Map easily while you have to manually keep track of size for an Object.

Is there a function in JavaScript similar to Python’s range()?

I think there should be a better way than to write the following lines every time:

array = new Array();
for (i = 0; i < specified_len; i++) {
    array[i] = i;
}

No, there is none, but you can make one.

JavaScript’s implementation of Python’s range()

Trying to emulate how it works in Python, I would create function similar to this:

function range(start, stop, step) {
    if (typeof stop == 'undefined') {
        // one param defined
        stop = start;
        start = 0;
    }

    if (typeof step == 'undefined') {
        step = 1;
    }

    if ((step > 0 && start >= stop) || (step < 0 && start <= stop)) {
        return [];
    }

    var result = [];
    for (var i = start; step > 0 ? i < stop : i > stop; i += step) {
        result.push(i);
    }

    return result;
};

See this jsfiddle for a proof.

Comparison between range() in JavaScript and Python

It works in the following way:

• range(4) returns [0, 1, 2, 3],
• range(3,6) returns [3, 4, 5],
• range(0,10,2) returns [0, 2, 4, 6, 8],
• range(10,0,-1) returns [10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1],
• range(8,2,-2) returns [8, 6, 4],
• range(8,2) returns [],
• range(8,2,2) returns [],
• range(1,5,-1) returns [],
• range(1,5,-2) returns [],

and its Python counterpart works exactly the same way (at least in the mentioned cases):

>>> range(4)
[0, 1, 2, 3]
>>> range(3,6)
[3, 4, 5]
>>> range(0,10,2)
[0, 2, 4, 6, 8]
>>> range(10,0,-1)
[10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
>>> range(8,2,-2)
[8, 6, 4]
>>> range(8,2)
[]
>>> range(8,2,2)
[]
>>> range(1,5,-1)
[]
>>> range(1,5,-2)
[]

So if you need a function to work similarly to Python’s range(), you can use above mentioned solution.

For a very simple range in ES6:

let range = n => Array.from(Array(n).keys())

From bigOmega’s comment, this can be shortened using Spread syntax:

let range = n => [...Array(n).keys()]

2018: this answer keeps getting upvotes, so here’s an update. The code below is obsolete, but luckily ES6 standardized generators and the yield keyword, and they are universally supported across platforms. An example of the lazy range() using yield can be found here.

In addition to what’s already said, Javascript 1.7+ provides support for iterators and generators which can be used to create a lazy, memory-efficient version of range, simlar to xrange in Python2:

function range(low, high) {  
    return {
        __iterator__: function() {
            return {  
                next: function() {
                    if (low > high)
                        throw StopIteration;  
                    return low++;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

for (var i in range(3, 5))  
  console.log(i); // 3,4,5

Fusing together both answers from @Tadeck and @georg, I came up with this:

function* range(start, stop, step = 1) {
    if (stop == null) {
        // one param defined
        stop = start;
        start = 0;
    }

    for (let i = start; step > 0 ? i < stop : i > stop; i += step) {
        yield i;
    }
}

To use it in a for loop you need the ES6/JS1.7 for-of loop:

for (let i of range(5)) {
    console.log(i);
}
// Outputs => 0 1 2 3 4

for (let i of range(0, 10, 2)) {
    console.log(i);
}
// Outputs => 0 2 4 6 8

for (let i of range(10, 0, -2)) {
    console.log(i);
}
// Outputs => 10 8 6 4 2

A port of the range function from Python 2 is provided by the underscore.js and lodash utility libraries (along with many other useful tools). Examples copied from the underscore docs:

_.range(10);
=> [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
_.range(1, 11);
=> [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
_.range(0, 30, 5);
=> [0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25]
_.range(0, -10, -1);
=> [0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9]
_.range(0);
=> []

Can be achieved by attaching an iterator to the Number prototype

  Number.prototype[Symbol.iterator] = function* () { 
     for (var i = 0; i <= this; i++) {
       yield i
     } 
  }

[...5] // will result in [0,1,2,3,4,5]

Taken from Kyle Simpson’s course Rethinking Asynchronous JavaScript

Here’s a small extension for one of the answers in case you need to specify both starting and ending position of the range:

let range = (start, end) => Array.from(Array(end + 1).keys()).slice(start);

Here you go.

This will write (or overwrite) the value of each index with the index number.

Array.prototype.writeIndices = function( n ) {
    for( var i = 0; i < (n || this.length); ++i ) this[i] = i;
    return this;
};

If you don’t provide a number, it will use the current length of the Array.

Use it like this:

var array = [].writeIndices(10);  // [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

For getting an array of size x, here’s an one-liner without using any library

var range = n => Array(n + 1).join(1).split('').map((x, i) => i)

works as

> range(4)
[0, 1, 2, 3]

The following is a natural adaption of Python’s range() function to JavaScript:

// Generate range from start (inclusive) to stop (exclusive):
function* range(start, stop, step = 1) {
   if (stop === undefined) [start, stop] = [0, start];
   if (step > 0) while (start < stop) yield start, start += step;
   else if (step < 0) while (start > stop) yield start, start += step;
   else throw new RangeError('range() step argument invalid');
} 

// Examples:
console.log([...range(3)]);       // [0, 1, 2]
console.log([...range(0, 3)]);    // [0, 1, 2]
console.log([...range(0, 3, -1)]);// []
console.log([...range(0, 0)]);    // []
console.log([...range(-3)]);      // []
console.log([...range(-3, 0)]);   // [-3, -2, -1]

It supports any argument which can be compared to 0 and stop and can be incremented by step. It behaves identical to the Python version when used with numbers not exceeding Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER.

Please note the following corner cases:

[...range(0, 0, 0)];        // RangeError: range() step argument invalid
[...range(Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER + 1, Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER + 2)];  // []
[...range(Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER + 2, Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER + 3)];  // Infinite loop
[...range(0.7, 0.8, 0.1)];  // [0.7, 0.7999999999999999]
[...range('1', '11')];      // ['1']
[...range('2', '22')];      // Infinite loop

In contrast to @Tadeck’s, @Volv’s and @janka102’s answer which return [], undefined or enter an infinite loop when step evaluates to 0 or NaN, this generator function throws an exception similar to Python’s behavior.

Further refined with ES6 default parameters.

let range = function*(start = 0, stop, step = 1) {
  let cur = (stop === undefined) ? 0 : start;
  let max = (stop === undefined) ? start : stop;
  for (let i = cur; step < 0 ? i > max : i < max; i += step)
    yield i
}

pythonic mimics the Python range behaviour best it can using JS’ generators (yield), supporting both the range(stop) and range(start, stop, step) use cases. In addition, pythonic‘s range function returns an Iterator object similar to Python that supports map and filter, so one could do fancy one-liners like:

import {range} from 'pythonic';
// ...
const results = range(5).map(wouldBeInvokedFiveTimes);
// `results` is now an array containing elements from
// 5 calls to wouldBeInvokedFiveTimes

Install using npm:

npm install --save pythonic

Disclosure I’m author and maintainer of Pythonic

MDN recommends this approach: Sequence generator (range)

// Sequence generator function (commonly referred to as "range", e.g. Clojure, PHP etc)
const range = (start, stop, step) => Array.from({ length: (stop - start) / step + 1}, (_, i) => start + (i * step));

// Generate numbers range 0..4
console.log("range(0, 4, 1):", range(0, 4, 1));
// [0, 1, 2, 3, 4] 

// Generate numbers range 1..10 with step of 2 
console.log("\nrange(1, 10, 2):", range(1, 10, 2));
// [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]

// Generate the alphabet using Array.from making use of it being ordered as a sequence
console.log("\nrange('A'.charCodeAt(0), 'Z'.charCodeAt(0), 1).map(x => String.fromCharCode(x))", range('A'.charCodeAt(0), 'Z'.charCodeAt(0), 1).map(x => String.fromCharCode(x)));
// ["A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L", "M", "N", "O", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z"]

You may use underscore library. It contains dozens of useful functions for working with arrays and many more.

Is there a function in JavaScript similar to Python’s range()?

All of the solutions here are referring to Python 2’s range (probably because of the code example you gave). However in Python 3, the range() method returns an iterator. JavaScript also has iterators and they’re more space efficient than generating the whole array and storing it in memory.

So the more accurate representation of Python 3’s range(n) function is Array(n).keys().

For example:

for (let i of Array(n).keys()) {
  console.log(i) // 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., n
}

One more example (which has already been covered in the other answers). Converting the iterator to an array (ES6):

let ary = [...Array(n).keys()];
// ary = [0, 1, 2, 3, ..., n]

Still no built-in function that is equivalent to range(), but with the most recent version – ES2015 – you can build your own implementation. Here’s a limited version of it. Limited because it doesn’t take into account the step parameter. Just min, max.

const range = (min = null, max = null) =>
  Array.from({length:max ? max - min : min}, (v,k) => max ? k + min : k)

This is accomplished by the Array.from method able to build an array from any object that has a length property. So passing in a simple object with just the length property will create an ArrayIterator that will yield length number of objects.

This is my preferred way. It allows you to specify one or two inputs like in Python.

function range(start, end) {
  return Array.from(Array(end||start).keys()).slice(!!end*start)
}

Here is another es6 implementation of the range

// range :: (from, to, step?) -> [Number]
const range = (from, to, step = 1) => {
  //swap values if necesery
  [from, to] = from > to ? [to, from] : [from, to]
  //create range array
  return [...Array(Math.round((to - from) / step))]
    .map((_, index) => {
      const negative = from < 0 ? Math.abs(from) : 0
      return index < negative ? 
        from + index * step  :
        (index - negative + 1) * step
    })
}  

range(-20, 0, 5)
  .forEach(val => console.log(val))

for(const val of range(5, 1)){
   console.log(`value ${val}`)
}

No, there is none, but you can make one.

I’m partial to Python3 behavior of range. You will find below JavaScript’s implementation of Python’s range():

function* range(start=0, end=undefined, step=1) {    
    if(arguments.length === 1) {end = start, start = 0}    
    
    [...arguments].forEach(arg => {    
        if( typeof arg !== 'number') {throw new TypeError("Invalid argument")}                               
    })    
    if(arguments.length === 0) {throw new TypeError("More arguments neede")}    
        
    if(start >= end) return                                                                                                                                     
    yield start    
    yield* range(start + step, end, step)    
}    
         
// Use Cases
console.log([...range(5)])

console.log([...range(2, 5)])

console.log([...range(2, 5, 2)])
console.log([...range(2,3)])
// You can, of course, iterate through the range instance.

Assuming you need a simple range with a single step:

let range = (start, end)=> {
    if(start === end) return [start];
    return [start, ...range(start + 1, end)];
}

else

let range = (start, end, step)=> {
    if(start === end) return [start];
    return [start, ...range(start + step, end)];
}

refer to here for more.

Is there a function in JavaScript similar to Python’s range()?

As answered before: no, there’s not. But you can make your own. I believe this is an interesting approach for ES6. It works very similar to Python 2.7 range(), but it’s much more dynamic.

function range(start, stop, step = 1) 
{
    // This will make the function behave as range(stop)
    if(arguments.length === 1)
    {
        return [...Array(arguments[0]).keys()]
    }

    // Adjusts step to go towards the stop value
    if((start > stop && !(step < 0)) ||
       (start < stop && !(step > 0)))
    {
        step *= -1
    }

    let returnArray = []
    // Checks if i is in the interval between start and stop no matter if stop
    // is lower than start or vice-versa
    for(let i = start; (i-start)*(i-stop) <= 0; i += step)
    {
        returnArray.push(i)
    }
    return returnArray
}

This function can behave in three different ways (just like Python’s range()):

1. range(stop)
2. range(start, stop)
3. range(start, stop, step)

These examples:

console.log(range(5))
console.log(range(-2, 2))
console.log(range(2, -2))
console.log(range(10, 20, 2))

Will give you the following output:

[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]
[ -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 ]
[ 2, 1, 0, -1, -2 ]
[ 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 ]

Note that instead of iterating over the array with the in operator (like python), you have to use of. Thus the i variable assumes the value, and not the index, of the array’s element.

for(let i of range(5))
{
    // do something with i...
}

An option for NodeJs is to use a Buffer:

[...Buffer.alloc(5).keys()]
// [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

What’s nice is that you can iterate directly on the buffer:

Buffer.alloc(5).forEach((_, index) => console.log(index))
// 0
// 1
// 2
// 3
// 4

You can’t do that with an uninitialized Array:

Array(5).forEach((_, index) => console.log(index))
// undefined

But, who in their right mind uses a Buffer for a purpose like this ;)

Here’s how i do it

let n = 5 
[...Array(n).keys()].map(x=>{console.log(x)})

output

0
1
2
3
4