Convert an array to an "array of associative arrays" in jQuery

Question

I'm trying to do another silly thing in jQuery...

I have a bunch of strings in an array:

[ var1 , var2 , var3 , var4 , var5 , var6 , var7 , ...]

And I want the array to become an "array of associative arrays", with the same index every time... (don't ask me why xD):

[ { 'variable' : var1 } , { 'variable' : var2 } , { 'variable' : var3 } , ... ]

The index 'variable' is the same every time.

How does one do this? My attempt (below) isn't working...

var stringarray = ['var1', 'var2', 'var3', 'var4'];
var assarray = {};

$.each(stringarray, function(index, value) {

  assarray[index] = {
    'variable': value
  };

});
document.write(JSON.stringify(assarray))

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

What isn’t working? It seems to work fine. Why did you use an object ({}) instead of an array ([]) for assarray? You can do the same thing without jQuery: stringarray.map(function(a){return {"variable": a};}). — Sebastian Simon
– Sebastian Simon, Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 19:51
Non-jQuery ES6: var out = arr.map(el => ({ variable: el }))... — Andy
– Andy, Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 19:53
But, yeah, var assarray= {} needs to be var assarray= [] as answered below. — Andy
– Andy, Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 19:54
Yeah, that was my mistake. There were so many things going wrong that I got kindof desperate. I had assarray=[]; first but probably had something else mixed up at that time... Thanks guys. — Laurens Swart
– Laurens Swart, Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 22:06

bknights · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-14 19:50:30Z

3

Basically because assarray is not an array. It needs to be:

var assarray = [];

Also you could do:

var assarray = $.map(stringarray, function(val){ return {variable:val};});

answered Apr 14, 2016 at 19:50

bknights

15.6k2 gold badges20 silver badges35 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Laurens Swart Over a year ago

Thanks! Managed to get it working. Turns out however that the array I was trying to parse has over 100.000 entries which just gave me a BSOD, LOL! Guess I'll have to find another solution... :-P

Luka Jacobowitz · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-14 20:41:46Z

1

Yeah, definitely use map. But I'd just use use the built-in since ES5:

var assarray = stringarray.map(function(element){ 
   return { variable: element };
});

Check out the docs here. Should work on every browser since IE9.

edited Apr 14, 2016 at 20:41

answered Apr 14, 2016 at 19:58

Luka Jacobowitz

23.7k5 gold badges41 silver badges58 bronze badges

2 Comments

bknights Over a year ago

Well he already has jQuery so unless he already knows IE8 and lower are out of the picture then using jQuery is less work.

Luka Jacobowitz Over a year ago

Not necessarily disagreeing with you here, but I feel the non-jquery version is generally more elegant and should be used whereever you can :)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Convert an array to an "array of associative arrays" in jQuery

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related