pathington

Create or parse an object path based on dot or bracket syntax.

Table of contents

• Usage
• Methods
  • create
  • parse
• Browser support
• Development

Usage

import { create, parse } from 'pathington';

const parsedPath = parse('some[0].deeply["nested path"]');

console.log(parsed); // ['some', 0, 'deeply', 'nested path']

const createdPath = create(['some', 0, 'deeply', 'nested path']);

console.log(createdPath); // 'some[0].deeply["nested path"]'

Methods

create

create(path: Array<number|string>, quote?: '"' | "'" | '```'): string

Create a path string based on the path values passed.

console.log(create(['simple'])); // 'simple'
console.log(create(['array', 0])); // 'array[0]'
console.log(create(['array', 0, 'with', 'quoted keys'])); // 'array[0].with["quoted keys"]'
console.log(create(['special', '%characters*'])); // 'special["%charactres*"]'

Optionally, you can pass in the quote string to use instead of ". Valid values are backtick or single-quote.

console.log(create(['quoted keys'], "'")); // ['quoted keys']

Symbols

You can provide symbols, and a string path will be created from it:

const symbol = Symbol('foo');
console.log(create(['array', 0, 'with', symbol])); // 'array[0].with[Symbol()]'

This can be used in concert with parse to extract the values pack:

const symbol = Symbol('foo');
const path = create(['array', 0, 'with', symbol]);
const parsedPath = parse(path);
console.log(parsedPath.at(-1) === symbol); // true

Because symbol values cannot be statically analyzed for their value by TS in the same way that numbers or strings can, a consistent visual representation is used for all symbols:

const symbol = Symbol('foo');
const path = create(['array', 0, 'with', symbol]);
console.log(path); // array[0].with[Symbol()]

parse

parse(path: (Array<number|string>|string)): string

Parse a path into an array of path values.

console.log(parse('simple')); // ['simple']
console.log(parse('dot.notation')); // ['dot', 'notation']
console.log(parse('array[0]')); // ['array', 0]
console.log(parse('array[0].with["quoted keys"]')); // ['array', 0, 'with', 'quoted keys']
console.log(parse('special["%characters*"]')); // ['special', '%characters*']

• If a path string is provided, it will be parsed into an array
• If an array is provided, it will be mapped with the keys normalized

Symbols

While symbols can be used with this library, parse will only recognize them in a string path when that path is created by create. If you try to manually stringify a symbol, it will identiy that value as a string key when parsing.