Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Making an Array of Objects
Every now and then I find myself having to rethink something I know I dealt with just recently but the details have slipped through my grasp. So this blog entry is an aide-memoire for me!
I'm working on a script where I want a function to read values from a table and return an array of objects that reflect the values in the table. I want each object to have this form:
{srcFnt:, srcStyl:, targFnt:, targStyl:}
So, the the loop looks like this (it starts at row 2 to skip over the heading info in the table):
Well, there's nothing like writing a blog to trigger new ideas: previously, it never occurred to me to use a function to create the object directly. Let's see how this works:
I'm working on a script where I want a function to read values from a table and return an array of objects that reflect the values in the table. I want each object to have this form:
{srcFnt:
So, the the loop looks like this (it starts at row 2 to skip over the heading info in the table):
var List = new Array();So, if I get to that blank line, what do I do to create the object?
for (var j = 2; myTable.bodyRowCount > j; j++) {
if (myTable.rows[j].cells[0].contents == "") { break }
}
Well, there's nothing like writing a blog to trigger new ideas: previously, it never occurred to me to use a function to create the object directly. Let's see how this works:
var List = new Array();Well what do you know! That was easy. Much easier than what I did last time I tried to solve this problem.
for (var j = 2; myTable.bodyRowCount > j; j++) {
if (myTable.rows[j].cells[0].contents == "") { break }
List.push(getObject(myTable.rows[j]))
}
function getObject(theRow) {
return {
srcFnt:theRow.cells[0].texts[0].contents,
srcStyl:theRow.cells[1].texts[0].contents,
targFnt:theRow.cells[2].texts[0].contents,
targStyl:theRow.cells[3].texts[0].contents
}
}
# posted by Dave Saunders @ 6:36 AM 
