scontainers

Scontainers is a container/collection/iterator library for JavaScript, comfortable to use, performant and versatile.

Scontainers offers functional-style operations like forEach, map, filter, reduce etc, similarly to lodash and underscore, but it...

• can be used with a nicer, more natural syntax. Scontainers is built using straits: its functions can be called using the straits syntax, as free functions or as member symbols.
• is blazing fast. Even million of times faster than the alternatives: as fast as writing a hand-tuned for loop.
• it's more powerful and versatile: it works lazily and can be used on any kind of collection (objects, arrays of any kind, ES6 Set and Map, lazy structures like Range and so on). Iterators and collection's data can also be collected into any container of your choice.

• Quick example
• How it works
  • Core and derived traits
  • Iterators
  • Transformations
  • Examples of some types and their traits
  • Code generation and trait generators
• API
  • Types
    • Range
    • KVN
  • Standard Types
  • Operations
• Status of scontainers

Quick example

This example uses the straits syntax. Refer to the straits documentation to see how to use it with free functions or member symbols.

The following example transforms a string into the binary representation of its ASCII characters, then back to a string:

import scontainers from 'scontainers';
 
use traits * from scontainers; // enabling the .* operator
 
const encoded =
  "★Hey!★"                           // "★Hey!★"
  .*map( char=>char.charCodeAt(0) )  // 9733, 72, 101, 121, 33, 9733
  .*filter( num=>num<128 )           // 72, 101, 121, 33
  .*map( num=>num.toString(2) )      // "1001000", "1100101", "1111001", "100001"
  .*map( str=>str.padStart(8, '0') ) // "01001000", "01100101", "01111001", "00100001"
  .*join( ' ' );                     // "01001000 01100101 01111001 00100001"
 
const decoded =
  encoded.split(' ')                     // "01001000", "01100101", "01111001", "00100001"
  .*map( bin=>parseInt(bin, 2) )         // 72, 101, 121, 33
  .*map( num=>String.fromCharCode(num) ) // "H", "e", "y", "!"
  .*join();                              // "Hey!"

How it works

Scontainers introduces a set of traits (i.e. symbols to be used as property keys) used to express the capabilities relevant to collections and containers:

• containers are collections that store each of their elements in memory. An example could be [1,2,3],
• collections are objects that can logically contain zero or more elements. Some examples are [1,2,3].*map(n=>n*n) or new Range(2, 7); of course [1,2,3] is a collection as well.

For instance, if an object has the symbol nth, then we know that such object is a collection whose elements can be enumerated, and the nth element of the collection can be accessed as object.nth(n).

Scontainers currently supports collections that can be accessed the following ways:

1. using a key, that can be of any kind. An example of this is Map.
2. using an index: an integer between 0 and the size of the collection. Unless a different key access function is provided, the index can also be used as a key to access elements in the collection using the previous mechanism.

Elements of collections are represented as a KVN object, rather than a key-value pair.

Core and derived traits

Scontainers defines a set of "core traits" that define some core properties of containers and collections and ways to access to these: the size of the collection, a way to access the nth element, the way to access an element with a given key, a way to tell whether an element belongs to the collection, ways to modify the collection, ways to iterate through the collection's elements etc. These core traits should be implemented only for those types or objects that can implement them natively and efficiently: the len trait to compute the size of a collection shouldn't be implemented by traversing the whole collection.

Other traits can be derived from existing ones, and these are called "derived traits". For instance, if all the elements of a collection can be accessed with indices ranging from 0 to len(), then the forEach and reverse operations can be automatically derived; if the len is available, or if it's possible to iterate through the whole collection, then count can be derived. These traits can of course be explicitly implemented as well, in case a smarter or more efficient implementation is available.

Iterators

Scontainers implements the Symbol.iterator trait compatible to the iterable protocol, but it also defines other iterators: kvIterator and kvReorderedIterator.

kvIterator is used the same way as iterator, but the objects next() returns is either a KVN or undefined.

kvReorderedIterator is able to handle synchronous iteration on reordered collections, like [3,1,2].*sort().

Transformations

Some of the traits defined by scontainers can be used to derive new collections from existing ones.

For instance map: it operates on a collection and returns a new collection with the same size; for each element <index,key,value> in the original collection, the resulting one has an element <index,key,f(value,key,index)>.

Another example is filter: it returns a collection like the original one stripped of the elements for which f(value,key,index) returns false.

Unless otherwise specified, transformations are lazy: they return a wrapper around the original collection, without processing or allocating any new data.

Examples of some types and their traits

Let's look at some examples of some types and the traits they can implement...

• [1,2,3]'s size is known (it's stored in its .length property) and its elements are enumerated and can be accessed using an index: len and nth are both implemented (for Array.prototype). Most scontainers operations are automatically derived for Arrays and are available on [1,2,3]. The get trait that allows accessing items using a key is also implemented for Array.prototype: it behaves like nth (but it doesn't fail if the key is not a number or greater than len).
• [1,2,3].*map(n=>n*n) implements the same traits as its len and nth traits wrap the ones of [1,2,3].
• [1,2,3].*filter(n=>n%2) cannot implement neither len nor nth: the size of this collection is unknown and we can't tell which element is the nth, unless we test every element starting from the first one. This collection can still be iterated through though, so the count, forEach, map traits, as well as many others, are still available.
• [1,2,3].*filter(n=>n%2).map(n=>n*n), [1,2,3].*map(n=>n*n).*filter(n=>n%2) and [1,2,3].*map(n=>n*n).filter(n=>n%2).*filter(n=>n%3) implement the same traits as [1,2,3].*filter(n=>n%2): no further properties are lost by these operations, nor gained.

Code generation and trait generators

In order to massively speed up scontainers operations, the code for some traits can be generated at runtime.

Take the following example:

const c = [1,2,3];
const rc = c.*reverse();
const mrc = rc.*map( fn );
console.log( mrc.*nth(n) );

mrc.*nth(n) would call rc.*nth(n) which would call c.*nth(m) (with m=c.*len()-n) which would return c[m]. These nested calls are quite slow with the existing JavaScript engines. If you were to manually implement mrc.*nth(n), the efficient version you would write would simply be c[c.*len()-n].

Of course it's not possible to manually implement every operation for every collection and all their combination of transformations (which are infinite). What scontainers do is using "trait generators": some traits that expose all the necessary information to dynamically generate efficient code.

The code generation efforts are still ongoing: the generated code can be further optimized and code is not yet generated for many traits, but for many common operations scontainers is already achieving astonishing results.

API

Types

Range

Scontainers introduces Range: a virtual collection made of all the integers in a certain range.

new Range( [[begin,] end] )

Range has the members properties begin and end and the method len().

new Range();        // Range from 0 to Infinity
new Range(10);      // Range from 0 to 10
new Range(20, 55);  // Range from 20 to 55
 
const assert = require('assert');
const rng = new Range();
assert.eq( rng.begin, 0 );
assert.eq( rng.end, Infinity );
assert.eq( rng.len(), Infinity );

KVN

A KVN is an object used to describe an element of a collection.

A KVN has up to three fields:

• key: the key of an element
• value: the element's value
• n: the element's index

This concept is similar to a key-value pair, but is also able to carry information on the element's enumerable order.

Let's see a couple of examples: the KVN of the only element of new Map([[2,"hey"]]) is {key:2, value:"hey"}. The KVN of the only element of ["yo"] is {key:0, n:0, value:"yo"}. The KVN of the only element of ["a", "b"].*slice(1) is {key:1, n:0, value:"b"}.

Most transformations try to preserve the original key of an element, while the index, if available, is always between 0 and .*len()-1.

Scontainers' native iterators (see the kvIterator and kvReorderedIterator traits) as well as functions meant to search for elements (e.g. first, random) return a KVN if an element is found or undefined if no element was found or if the end of the iterator has been reached.

Standard Types

The scontainers traits are implemented for the following types:

• Array
• Map
• Set
• String: a collection of all the UTF-16 characters in the string.

Object doesn't implement the scontainers traits directly, but the traits are implemented for the own properties and the enumerable properties of an object:

• object.*ownProperties(): a collection of all the own properties of object.
• object.*properties(): a collection of all the enumerable properties of object.

Operations

Scontainers defines the following traits:

• ContainerType.*from( collection ), returns a new instance of a container of type ContainerType containing the elements of collection.

The following operations must be asymptotically fast; preferably O(1).

• collection.*len(), returns the amount of elements of collection.

• collection.*nth( n ), returns the value of the nth element of collection.

• collection.*nthKVN( n ), returns the KVN (an object with key, value and n fields) for the nth element of collection.

• collection.*get( key ), returns the value of the element with key key of collection.

• collection.*getKVN( key ), returns the KVN of the element with key key of collection.

• collection.*has( value ), tells whether value is an element of collection.

• collection.*hasKey( key ), tells whether collection has an element with key key.

• collection.*nToKey( n ), returns the key of the nth element of collection.

• collection.*keyToN( key ), returns the index of the element of collection with key key.

• collection.*add( value ), adds value to the collection.

• collection.*setNth( n, value ), sets value as the nth element of collection.

• collection.*set( key, value ), sets value as the element with key key in collection.

Consumers:

• collection.*forEach( fn ), calls fn(value, key, n) for every item in collection

• collection.*whileEach( fn ), calls fn(value, key, n) for every item in collection, it stops when fn(value, key, n) returns false.

• collection.*untilEach( fn ), calls fn(value, key, n) for every item in collection, it stops when fn(value, key, n) returns true.

• collection.*every( fn ), returns true if fn(value, key, n) returned true for every element of collection, false otherwise.

• collection.*some( fn ), returns true if fn(value, key, n) returned true for at least one element of collection, false otherwise.

• collection.*count(), returns the amount of elements of collection. It's semantically identical to collection.*len(), but could be way slower (it might be implemented by traversing the whole collection, if a better way is not available).

• collection.*isEmpty(), true if collection has no elements, false othrwise.

• collection.*only(), returns the only item in collection. If collection has more than one item, it throws an exception.

• collection.*one(), returns one item in collection, whatever is faster to retrieve.

• collection.*first(), returns the first item in collection. Asymptotically fast.

• collection.*last(), returns the last item in collection. Asymptotically fast.

• collection.*random(), returns a random item in collection. Asymptotically fast.

• collection.*swapNs( n1, n2 ), swaps the elements with indices n1 and n2 in collection.

• collection.*swapKeys( k1, k2 ), swaps the elements with keys k1 and k2 in collection.

• collection.*reduce( fn, initialValue ), applies a function against an accumulator and each element in the collection (from left to right) to reduce it to a single value. Semantically similar to Array.prototype.reduce.

• collection.*reduceFirst( fn ), like collection.*reduce(), except that it uses the first element of collection as initial value and it doesn't iterate on it.

• collection.*sum(), returns the sum of all the numbers in collection.

• collection.*avg(), returns the average of the numbers in collection.

• collection.*min(), returns the smallest number in collection.

• collection.*max(), returns the largest number in collection.

• collection.*join( sep='' ), returns a string obtained joining all the string in collection together, with sep in between each couple of strings.

Decorators:

• collection.*iterator(), an alias for Symbol.Iterator

• collection.*kvIterator(), returns a KVN Iterator: either null, if collection was empty, or an object with three properties key, value and n and a method next(). The properties represent an element of collection we're iterating on, while next() returns null, if the end of the collection has been reached, or an element like itself representing the following element in the collection.

• collection.*kvReorderedIterator(), returns a KVN Reordered Iterator: an object that has a property state and two callbacks onNextFn and onEndFn. It has the methods proceed(), resume() and stop() to control the state of the KVN Reordered Iterator and onNext(cb) and onEnd(cb) to register callback. A KVN Reordered Iterator is a more generic way to iterate on collections, which supports collections that are not in order (e.g. the result of collection.*sort() or collection.*groupBy()), although it's slower.

• collection.*collect(ContainerType)

• collection.*collectInto(ContainerType)

• collection.*reverse(), returns a collection with the same elements as collection, but in reversed order.

• collection.*keys(), returns a collection whose iterator() trait iterates on the keys of collection.

• collection.*values(), returns a collection whose iterator() trait iterates on the values of collection.

• collection.*entries(), returns a collection whose iterator() trait iterates on the entries of collection (arrays whose first element is the key and the second the value).

• collection.*enumerate(), returns a collection identical to collection, but whose indices are numerated continuously when iterating on it.

• collection.*filter(fn), returns a collection containing the same elements as collection excluding those fn(value, key, n) returns false for.

• collection.*uniq(eq), returns a collection containing the same elements as collection excluding those that follow the same value as themselves.

• collection.*slice(begin, end), returns a slice of collection, between the element with index begin and that with index end.

• collection.*chunk(n), returns a collection made of slices of collection, each containing n elements.

• collection.*map(fn), returns a collection derived from collection, whose values are the result of fn(value, key, index).

• collection.*mapKey(fn), returns a collection derived from collection, whose keys are the result of fn(value, key, index).

• collection.*cache(ContainerType=Map), returns a collection that caches the values of collection. When directly accessing an element of this container, the element is cached in a container of type ContainerType and it will be retrieved from there for the following accesses.

• collection.*flatten(): collection must be a collection of collections; returns a collection of the element inside the collections inside collection.

• collection.*flattenDeep(), like flatten(), but recursive.

• collection.*concat(...collections), returns a collection with the element of collection and then the ones of the collections.

• collection.*skipWhile(fn), returns a collection identical to collection excluding all the elements fn(value, key, n) returns true for until the first element for which false is returned.

• collection.*takeWhile(fn), returns a collection identical to collection containing only the elements fn(value, key, n) returns true for until the first elements for which false is returned.

• collection.*skip(n), returns a collection containing all except the first n elements of collection.

• collection.*take(n), returns a collection containing the first n elements of collection.

• collection.*groupBy(fn), returns a collection of collections: each element of collection belongs to the collection with key fn(value, key, n).

• collection.*cow(ContainerType=Map), returns a wrapper around collection which implements the modification traits and allocates a new container of type ContainerType with all the values of collection the first time it's modified.

• collection.*remap(fn), returns a collection whose keys and values are those of the KV returned by fn(value, key, n) for each element of collection.

• collection.*kvMap(fn), returns a collection with an element for each element of collection: the key for each element is a KV with the current key and the current value and the value is the one returned by fn(value, key, n).

• collection.*unmap(): collection must be a collection of collections; returns a collection with the key and value of the KV of each element of collection.

• collection.*unmapKeys(): collection must be a collection whose keys are KV; returns a collection with the key and value of the KV of each key of collection.

• collection.*sort(cmp), returns a collection with the same elements as collection, sorted according to cmp(kvn1, kvn2).

• collection.*shuffle(), returns a collection with the same elements as collection, randomly sorted.

• collection.*permute(), .

• collection.*groupWhile(fn), returns a collection of collections, each containing all the continuous elements fn(value, key, n) returned true for.

• collection.*repeat(n=Infinity), returns a collection identical to collectcion repeated n times.

• collection.*assign(...collections), return a collection where the elements of collections have been added (overwriting if necessary) to those of collection.

• collection.*defaults(...collections), return a collection where the elements of collections have been added to those of collection, without overwriting existing ones.

Status of scontainers

Scontainers is still in its alpha stage. Some of its traits already work, but some might be broken and a few extremely important features are still missing.

In particular we still need to...

• implement or fix several missing or broken traits,
• implement or fix code generation for many traits,
• expand test coverage,
• make it possible to derive third party traits on existing collections and handle new versions better (see status of straits),
• improve documentation.