neotraverse

Traverse and transform objects by visiting every node on a recursive walk. This is a fork and TypeScript rewrite of traverse with 0 dependencies and major improvements:

• 🤌 1.38KB min+brotli
• 🚥 Zero dependencies
• 🎹 TypeScript. Throw away the @types/traverse package
• ❎ No polyfills
• 🛸 ESM-first
• 📜 Legacy mode supporting ES5

Principles

Rules this package aims to follow for an indefinite period of time:

• No dependencies.
• No polyfills.
• ESM-first.
• Pushing to be modern
• Always provide a legacy mode
• Always follow traverse API. There already are many packages that do this. neotraverse intends to be a drop-in replacement for traverse and provide the same API with 0 dependencies and enhanced Developer Experience.
• All deviating changes happen in neotraverse/modern build.

Modern build

neotraverse/modern provides a new class new Traverse(), and all methods and state is provided as first argument ctx (this.update -> ctx.update, this.isLeaf -> ctx.isLeaf, etc.)

Before:

import traverse from 'neotraverse';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

After:

import { Traverse } from 'neotraverse/modern';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

new Traverse(obj).forEach((ctx, x) => {
  if (x < 0) ctx.update(x + 128);
});

Which build to use?

neotraverse provides 3 builds:

• default: Backwards compatible with traverse and provides the same API, but ESM only and compiled to ES2022 with Node 18+
• modern: Modern build with ESM only and compiled to ES2022 with Node 18+. Provides a new class new Traverse(), and all methods and state is provided as first argument ctx (this.update -> ctx.update, this.isLeaf -> ctx.isLeaf, etc.)
• legacy: Legacy build with ES5 and CJS, compatible with traverse and provides the same API.

Here's a matrix of the different builds:

Build	ESM	CJS	Browser	Node	Polyfills	Size
default	✅ ES2022		✅	✅	❌	1.54KB min+brotli
modern	✅ ES2022		✅	✅	❌	1.38KB min+brotli
legacy	✅ ES5	✅	✅	✅	❌	2.73KB min+brotli

If you are:

starting from scratch

import { Traverse } from 'neotraverse/modern';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

new Traverse(obj).forEach((ctx, x) => {
  if (x < 0) ctx.update(x + 128); // `this` is same as `ctx` when using regular function
});

migrating from traverse

and you don't care about old browsers or Node versions:

Use default build for no breaking changes, and a modern build for better developer experience.

import traverse from 'neotraverse';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

and you care about old browsers or Node versions:

Use legacy build for compatibility with old browsers and Node versions.

const traverse = require('neotraverse/legacy');

ESM:

import traverse from 'neotraverse/legacy';

examples

transform negative numbers in-place

negative.js

import { Traverse } from 'neotraverse/modern';
const obj = [5, 6, -3, [7, 8, -2, 1], { f: 10, g: -13 }];

new Traverse(obj).forEach(function (ctx, x) {
  if (x < 0) ctx.update(x + 128);
});

console.dir(obj);

or in legacy mode:

import traverse from 'neotraverse';
// OR import traverse from 'neotraverse/legacy';

const obj = [5, 6, -3, [7, 8, -2, 1], { f: 10, g: -13 }];

traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

// This is identical to the above
traverse.forEach(obj, function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

console.dir(obj);

Output:

[ 5, 6, 125, [ 7, 8, 126, 1 ], { f: 10, g: 115 } ]

collect leaf nodes

leaves.js

import { Traverse } from 'neotraverse/modern';

const obj = {
  a: [1, 2, 3],
  b: 4,
  c: [5, 6],
  d: { e: [7, 8], f: 9 }
};

const leaves = new Traverse(obj).reduce((ctx, acc, x) => {
  if (ctx.isLeaf) acc.push(x);
  return acc;
}, []);

console.dir(leaves);

or in legacy mode:

import traverse from 'neotraverse';
// OR import traverse from 'neotraverse/legacy';

const obj = {
  a: [1, 2, 3],
  b: 4,
  c: [5, 6],
  d: { e: [7, 8], f: 9 }
};

const leaves = traverse(obj).reduce(function (acc, x) {
  if (this.isLeaf) acc.push(x);
  return acc;
}, []);

// Equivalent to the above
const leavesLegacy = traverse.reduce(
  obj,
  function (acc, x) {
    if (this.isLeaf) acc.push(x);
    return acc;
  },
  []
);

console.dir(leaves);
console.dir(leavesLegacy);

Output:

[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ]

scrub circular references

scrub.js:

import { Traverse } from 'neotraverse/modern';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };
obj.c.push(obj);

const scrubbed = new Traverse(obj).map(function (ctx, x) {
  if (ctx.circular) ctx.remove();
});

console.dir(scrubbed);

or in legacy mode:

import traverse from 'neotraverse';
// OR import traverse from 'neotraverse/legacy';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };
obj.c.push(obj);

const scrubbed = traverse(obj).map(function (x) {
  if (this.circular) this.remove();
});

// Equivalent to the above
const scrubbedLegacy = traverse.map(obj, function (x) {
  if (this.circular) this.remove();
});

console.dir(scrubbed);
console.dir(scrubbedLegacy);

output:

{ a: 1, b: 2, c: [ 3, 4 ] }

commonjs

neotraverse/legacy is compatible with commonjs and provides the same API as traverse, acting as a drop-in replacement:

const traverse = require('neotraverse/legacy');

esm

import { Traverse } from 'neotraverse/modern';

import traverse from 'neotraverse';

Differences from traverse

• ESM-first
• ES2022, Node 18+
• Types included by default. No need to install @types/traverse
• Works as-is in all major browsers and Deno
• No polyfills
• new Traverse() class instead of regular old traverse()
• Legacy mode supporting ES5 and CJS

There is a legacy mode that provides the same API as traverse, acting as a drop-in replacement:

import traverse from 'neotraverse';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

If you want to support really old browsers or NodeJS, supporting ES5, there's neotraverse/legacy which is compatible with ES5 and provides the same API as traverse, acting as a drop-in replacement for older browsers:

import traverse from 'neotraverse/legacy';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

Migrating from traverse

Step 1: Install neotraverse

npm install neotraverse
npm uninstall traverse @types/traverse # Remove the old dependencies

Step 2: Replace traverse with neotraverse

-import traverse from 'traverse';
+import traverse from 'neotraverse';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

-traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
+traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

Optionally, there's also a legacy mode that provides the same API as traverse, acting as a drop-in replacement:

import traverse from 'neotraverse/legacy';

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: [3, 4] };

traverse(obj).forEach(function (x) {
  if (x < 0) this.update(x + 128);
});

Step 3(Optional): Bundle time aliasing

If you use Vite, you can aliss traverse to neotravers/legacy in your vite.config.js:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite';

export default defineConfig({
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      traverse: 'neotraverse' // or 'neotraverse/legacy'
    }
  }
});

methods

Each method that takes an fn uses the context documented below in the context section.

.map(fn)

Execute fn for each node in the object and return a new object with the results of the walk. To update nodes in the result use ctx.update(value)(modern) or this.update(value)(legacy).

.forEach(fn)

Execute fn for each node in the object but unlike .map(), when ctx.update()(modern) or this.update()(legacy) is called it updates the object in-place.

.reduce(fn, acc)

For each node in the object, perform a left-fold with the return value of fn(acc, node).

If acc isn't specified, acc is set to the root object for the first step and the root element is skipped.

.paths()

Return an Array of every possible non-cyclic path in the object. Paths are Arrays of string keys.

.nodes()

Return an Array of every node in the object.

.clone()

Create a deep clone of the object.

.get(path)

Get the element at the array path.

.set(path, value)

Set the element at the array path to value.

.has(path)

Return whether the element at the array path exists.

context

Each method that takes a callback has a context (its ctx object, or this object in legacy mode) with these attributes:

this.node

The present node on the recursive walk

this.path

An array of string keys from the root to the present node

this.parent

The context of the node's parent. This is undefined for the root node.

this.key

The name of the key of the present node in its parent. This is undefined for the root node.

this.isRoot, this.notRoot

Whether the present node is the root node

this.isLeaf, this.notLeaf

Whether or not the present node is a leaf node (has no children)

this.level

Depth of the node within the traversal

this.circular

If the node equals one of its parents, the circular attribute is set to the context of that parent and the traversal progresses no deeper.

this.update(value, stopHere=false)

Set a new value for the present node.

All the elements in value will be recursively traversed unless stopHere is true.

this.remove(stopHere=false)

Remove the current element from the output. If the node is in an Array it will be spliced off. Otherwise it will be deleted from its parent.

this.delete(stopHere=false)

Delete the current element from its parent in the output. Calls delete even on Arrays.

this.before(fn)

Call this function before any of the children are traversed.

You can assign into ctx.keys(modern) or this.keys(legacy) here to traverse in a custom order.

this.after(fn)

Call this function after any of the children are traversed.

this.pre(fn)

Call this function before each of the children are traversed.

this.post(fn)

Call this function after each of the children are traversed.

license

MIT