equal-array

equal-array lets the strict equality operator === compare arrays by values instead of references. Comparison can be either shallow or deeper.

Purpose

It is mainly useful with an es6 Map or Set, because arrays, used as keys, are compared by references. For example :

const map = new Map();
map.set([1, 2 ,3], 'a');
map.set([1, 2 ,3], 'b'); // the map will consider [1, 2 ,3] as a new key
map.size; // returns 2 - with equal-array: returns 1
map.has([1, 2, 3]); // returns false - with equal-array: returns true

Installation

npm install equal-array

Usage

import EqualArray from 'equal-array';
// ES5: var EqualArray = require('equal-array').default;
 
const eq = new EqualArray();
// eq is a function
 
eq([1, 2, 3]) === eq([1, 2, 3]); //returns true
 
const map = new Map();
map.set(eq([1, 2 ,3]), 'a');
map.set(eq([1, 2 ,3]), 'b');
map.size; // returns 1
map.has(eq([1, 2, 3])); // returns true

Options

const eq = new EqualArray({
 returnArray: false,
 conversion: true
})

returnArray

accepted values: false (default) or true

If returnArray is true, the eq function returns a cloned array, otherwise a unique integer. The default is false to maximize performances.

conversion

accepted values: true (default), false, or a callback

Apply a conversion to the array elements in order to make the comparison. This is important if the array contains objects.

If conversion is false then :

eq([1, 2, new Date(1995, 10)]) !== eq([1, 2, new Date(1995, 10)])

If conversion is true then :

eq([1, 2, new Date(1995, 10)]) === eq([1, 2, new Date(1995, 10)])

Setting conversion to true means that EqualArray will call the valueOf() function on each element (when applicable).

The conversion option also accepts a callback which takes as a parameter an element of an array and returns the value to be compared:

const obj1 = {dummy: 1};
const obj2 = {dummy: 1};
const obj3 = {dummy: 99};
const callback = element => element.dummy;
const eq = new EqualArray({conversion: callback});
eq([obj1]) === eq([obj2]); // true
eq([obj1]) === eq([obj3]); // false