Map

Syntax#

• new Map([iterable])
• map.set(key, value)
• map.get(key)
• map.size
• map.clear()
• map.delete(key)
• map.entries()
• map.keys()
• map.values()
• map.forEach(callback[, thisArg])

Parameters#

const map = new Map([[NaN, true]]);
console.log(map.get(NaN)); // true

Creating a Map

A Map is a basic mapping of keys to values. Maps are different from objects in that their keys can be anything (primitive values as well as objects), not just strings and symbols. Iteration over Maps is also always done in the order the items were inserted into the Map, whereas the order is undefined when iterating over keys in an object.

To create a Map, use the Map constructor:

const map = new Map();

It has an optional parameter, which can be any iterable object (for example an array) which contains arrays of two elements – first is the key, the seconds is the value. For example:

const map = new Map([[new Date(), {foo: "bar"}], [document.body, "body"]]);
//                      ^key          ^value          ^key        ^value

Clearing a Map

To remove all elements from a Map, use the .clear() method:

map.clear();

Example:

const map = new Map([[1, 2], [3, 4]]);
console.log(map.size); // 2
map.clear();
console.log(map.size); // 0
console.log(map.get(1)); // undefined

Removing an element from a Map

To remove an element from a map use the .delete() method.

map.delete(key);

Example:

const map = new Map([[1, 2], [3, 4]]);
console.log(map.get(3)); // 4
map.delete(3);
console.log(map.get(3)); // undefined

This method returns true if the element existed and has been removed, otherwise false:

const map = new Map([[1, 2], [3, 4]]);
console.log(map.delete(1)); // true
console.log(map.delete(7)); // false

Checking if a key exists in a Map

To check if a key exists in a Map, use the .has() method:

map.has(key);

Example:

const map = new Map([[1, 2], [3, 4]]);
console.log(map.has(1)); // true
console.log(map.has(2)); // false

Iterating Maps

Map has three methods which returns iterators: .keys(), .values() and .entries(). .entries() is the default Map iterator, and contains [key, value] pairs.

const map = new Map([[1, 2], [3, 4]]);

for (const [key, value] of map) {
  console.log(`key: ${key}, value: ${value}`);
  // logs:
  // key: 1, value: 2
  // key: 3, value: 4
}

for (const key of map.keys()) {
  console.log(key); // logs 1 and 3
}

for (const value of map.values()) {
  console.log(value); // logs 2 and 4
}

Map also has .forEach() method. The first parameter is a callback function, which will be called for each element in the map, and the second parameter is the value which will be used as this when executing the callback function.

The callback function has three arguments: value, key, and the map object.

const map = new Map([[1, 2], [3, 4]]);
map.forEach((value, key, theMap) => console.log(`key: ${key}, value: ${value}`));
// logs:
// key: 1, value: 2
// key: 3, value: 4

Getting and setting elements

Use .get(key) to get value by key and .set(key, value) to assign a value to a key.

If the element with the specified key doesn’t exist in the map, .get() returns undefined.

.set() method returns the map object, so you can chain .set() calls.

const map = new Map();
console.log(map.get(1)); // undefined
map.set(1, 2).set(3, 4);
console.log(map.get(1)); // 2

Getting the number of elements of a Map

To get the numbers of elements of a Map, use the .size property:

const map = new Map([[1, 2], [3, 4]]);
console.log(map.size); // 2