Making an array where each has it's own value

Question

How would I assign Cat, dog and Bear it's own value. So it says i.e. Bear = 50. or cat36 ?

HTML:

<p id="item"> </p>
<p id="valueOfItem"> </p>

Javascript:

var items = ["cat","dog","Bear"]

I can't find a single way assign cat, dog and bear a seperate value and then output it.

Do you want the output to be in HTML? Are you looking for a Javascript answer that generates HTML? — LarsH
– LarsH, Commented Dec 27, 2016 at 21:45

nvioli · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-27 21:42:05Z

3

You may be looking for an object (denoted with curly braces {}), not an array:

var items = {bear: 50, cat: 36, dog: 13};
console.log(items.cat);
//36

answered Dec 27, 2016 at 21:42

nvioli

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:08:49Z

1

The solution by @nvioli is good, but has the disadvantage that it loses the ordering of the items. Here's a couple of other approaches, both of which preserve the item order. First, an array of objects:

var items = [
    { name: "cat", value: 36 },
    { name: "dog", value: 13 },
    { name: "Bear", value: 50 }
];

The second is parallel arrays:

var items = ["cat","dog","Bear"];
var values = [36, 13, 50];

The latter is more difficult code to write and maintain because related items are stored in separate arrays. But this structure occasionally has its uses.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:08

CommunityBot

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answered Dec 27, 2016 at 22:09

Ted Hopp

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2 Comments

Barmar Over a year ago

Of course, if ordering is not important, the other answer is better.

Ted Hopp Over a year ago

@Barmar - Not necessarily. Iterating through an array is a bit simpler than iterating through all of an object's properties. Plus you automatically get a count of how many items you're dealing with via the array's length property. On the other hand, if you have to look up a value by item name, then the other solution is definitely better.

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