map-filter-reduce

Let's practice using map, filter, and reduce!

Setup

Install mocha: npm install -g mocha
To run all the tests: mocha .

Details

This repository contains exercises for using .map(), .filter(), and .reduce(). You are encouraged to complete the exercises in that order. Once you've finished the basic exercises, take on the Zoo Challenge where you'll be building a number of useful functions to help provide information about a Zoo.

In each case, check the test files for more information on how you are supposed to complete each task. With the Zoo Challenge, note that there's no guidance on which Higher Order Functions to use -- and, in fact, there are many ways to get to the same solution! Do your best to sensibly apply the functions you're learning and practicing here. And, remember that you can use Object.keys() to turn an object into an array!

.map()

Map works by returning a new array after a function has been applied to every single element in the array. Often map is used to cut down on data in deeply nested objects.

Check out the docs.

Example

Imagine we have a group of users with multiple attributes.

var users = [{ firstName: 'Bradley', lastName: 'Bouley', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Chloe', lastName: 'Alnaji', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Jonathan', lastName: 'Baughn', role: 'Enterprise Instructor' },
             { firstName: 'Michael', lastName: 'Herman', role: 'Lead Instructor' },
             { firstName: 'Robert', lastName: 'Hajek', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Wes', lastName: 'Reid', role: 'Instructor'},
             { firstName: 'Zach', lastName: 'Klabunde', role: 'Instructor'}];

We're going to send out a message to all our users but just need their first name in order to personalize it. We can use .map() to quickly return an array of just their first names.

users.map(function (user) {
  return user.firstName;
});

// [ 'Bradley',
//   'Chloe',
//   'Jonathan',
//   'Michael',
//   'Robert',
//   'Wes',
//   'Zach' ]

It's important to take note of the return inside of the anonymous function that is passed into .map(). Without that, our array of first names will not be quite what we expect.

users.map(function (user) {
  user.firstName;
});

// [ undefined,
//   undefined,
//   undefined,
//   undefined,
//   undefined,
//   undefined,
//   undefined ]

Calling return is crucial when using all of these higher order functions. .map() also takes additional arguments, so make sure to check out the MDN Docs!

.filter()

Filter allows us to remove elements that don't fit certain criteria. It's incredibly useful for whittling down large arrays so that we only pick out those items we want!

Check out the docs.

Example

Imagine we have a group of users with multiple attributes.

var users = [{ firstName: 'Bradley', lastName: 'Bouley', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Chloe', lastName: 'Alnaji', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Jonathan', lastName: 'Baughn', role: 'Enterprise Instructor' },
             { firstName: 'Michael', lastName: 'Herman', role: 'Lead Instructor' },
             { firstName: 'Robert', lastName: 'Hajek', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Wes', lastName: 'Reid', role: 'Instructor'},
             { firstName: 'Zach', lastName: 'Klabunde', role: 'Instructor'}];

We want to send out a message to just the Full Stack Residents, telling them what a wonderful job they're doing. We can use .filter() to return just those users who fit the right role.

users.filter(function (user) {
  return user.role === 'Full Stack Resident';
});

// [{ firstName: 'Bradley', lastName: 'Bouley', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
//  { firstName: 'Chloe', lastName: 'Alnaji', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
//  { firstName: 'Robert', lastName: 'Hajek', role: 'Full Stack Resident' }];

Just like the other functions here, .filter() also takes additional arguments, so make sure to check out the MDN Docs!

.reduce()

Reduce is an incredibly powerful method that allows us to combine all of the result in an array into a single result. There are a few different ways we can use it, so it's important to read the documentation carefully!

Check out the docs.

Example

To start, let's take this array of words and phrases.

var epic = ['a', 'long', 'time', 'ago', 'in a', 'galaxy', 'far far', 'away'];

With .reduce(), we can combine all of these into a single string! You'll typically use reduce with two arguments: previous and current. In this case, reduce starts with given you access to the first two elements of the array (i.e. 'a' and 'long'). You then return a single value which becomes previous in the next iteration while current changes to be the next item in the array (i.e. 'time');

epic.reduce(function (previous, current) {
  return previous + ' ' + current;
});

// 'a long time ago in a galaxy far far away'

It may take a minute to get your mind wrapped around what's happening. However, by simply logging the values it (hopefully!) becomes much more clear what's going on.

epic.reduce(function (previous, current) {
  console.log('logging -- current: "' + current + '", ' + 'previous: "' + previous + '"');
  return previous + ' ' + current;
});

// logging -- current: "long",    previous: "a"
// logging -- current: "time",    previous: "a long"
// logging -- current: "ago",     previous: "a long time"
// logging -- current: "in a",    previous: "a long time ago"
// logging -- current: "galaxy",  previous: "a long time ago in a"
// logging -- current: "far far", previous: "a long time ago in a galaxy"
// logging -- current: "away",    previous: "a long time ago in a galaxy far far"
// >> 'a long time ago in a galaxy far far away'

Let's get back to our users and see how we can actually set the initial value for our reduce method!

var users = [{ firstName: 'Bradley', lastName: 'Bouley', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Chloe', lastName: 'Alnaji', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Jonathan', lastName: 'Baughn', role: 'Enterprise Instructor' },
             { firstName: 'Michael', lastName: 'Herman', role: 'Lead Instructor' },
             { firstName: 'Robert', lastName: 'Hajek', role: 'Full Stack Resident' },
             { firstName: 'Wes', lastName: 'Reid', role: 'Instructor'},
             { firstName: 'Zach', lastName: 'Klabunde', role: 'Instructor'}];

We want to change up the structure of our users so that we can use the users' full name as the key and have their role as the value. Normally, this would take a lot of looping and initializing some variables. However, with reduce we can set an empty object as our starting point (i.e. previous) and do it all in a single go!

users.reduce(function (usersObj, user) {
  var fullName = user.firstName + ' ' + user.lastName;
  usersObj[fullName] = user.role;

  return usersObj;
}, {});

// { 'Bradley Bouley': 'Full Stack Resident',
//   'Chloe Alnaji': 'Full Stack Resident',
//   'Jonathan Baughn': 'Enterprise Instructor',
//   'Michael Herman': 'Lead Instructor',
//   'Robert Hajek': 'Full Stack Resident',
//   'Wes Reid': 'Instructor',
//   'Zach Klabunde': 'Instructor' }

Notice the empty object as the second argument in reduce, as well as the fact that we're constantly returning our usersObj on each iteration.

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