To make the process more understandable, break the problem down into pieces.
The first step is convert each string into something we can use, converting this:
"animal/mammal/dog"
into this:
[ "animal", "mammal", "dog" ]
That's an array of property names needed to build the final object.
Two functions will accomplish this for you, String.prototype.split() to split the string into an array, and Array.prototype.map() to transform each of the array elements:
let splitIntoNames = input.map(str => str.split('/'));
The intermediate result is this:
[
[ "animal", "mammal", "dog" ],
[ "animal", "mammal", "cat", "tiger" ],
[ "animal", "mammal", "cat", "lion" ],
[ "animal", "mammal", "elephant" ],
[ "animal", "reptile" ],
[ "plant", "sunflower" ]
]
Next step is to iterate over each array, using Array.prototype.forEach() to add properties to the object. You could add properties to the object with a for loop, but let's do that with a recursive function addName():
function addName(element, list, index) {
if (index >= list.length) {
return;
}
let name = list[index];
let isEndOfList = index === list.length - 1;
element[name] = element[name] || (isEndOfList ? true : {});
addName(element[name], list, index + 1);
}
let result = {};
splitIntoNames.forEach((list) => {
addName(result, list, 0);
});
The result:
result: {
"animal": {
"mammal": {
"dog": true,
"cat": {
"tiger": true,
"lion": true
},
"elephant": true
},
"reptile": true
},
"plant": {
"sunflower": true
}
}
const input = [
"animal/mammal/dog",
"animal/mammal/cat/tiger",
"animal/mammal/cat/lion",
"animal/mammal/elephant",
"animal/reptile",
"plant/sunflower",
];
let splitIntoNames = input.map((str) => str.split("/"));
console.log("splitIntoNames:", JSON.stringify(splitIntoNames, null, 2));
function addName(element, list, index) {
if (index >= list.length) {
return;
}
let name = list[index];
let isEndOfList = index === list.length - 1;
element[name] = element[name] || (isEndOfList ? true : {});
addName(element[name], list, index + 1);
}
let result = {};
splitIntoNames.forEach((list) => {
addName(result, list, 0);
});
console.log("result:", JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));