Preliminary documentation for Ice 3.7.1 Beta. Do not use in production applications. Refer to the space directory for other releases.

Here is the definition of our EmployeeMap once more:

Slice
dictionary<int, Employee> EmployeeMap;

In the JavaScript mapping, dictionaries using a JavaScript built-in type as the key type are mapped to the JavaScript Map type. This is true for all Slice built-in types except long:

JavaScript
let em = new Map();

let e = new Employee();
e.number = 31;
e.firstName = "James";
e.lastName = "Gosling";

em.set(e.number, e);

For cases where the key type does not correspond with a JavaScript built-in type, the dictionary is mapped to HashMap. This is true for Slice dictionaries where the key type is long or a Slice structure that qualifies as a legal dictionary key:

Slice
dictionary<long, Employee> EmployeeMap;

In these cases an extra constructor is generated that initializes the HashMap with the desired comparison operator.

JavaScript
let em = new EmployeeMap();

let e = new Employee();
e.number = new Ice.Long(31);
e.firstName = "James";
e.lastName = "Gosling";

em.set(e.number, e);


HashMap supports the same API as the standard JavaScript Map object. It provides the following additional properties and functions:

  • HashMap(keyComparator, valueComparator)
    This version of the constructor accepts optional comparator functions that the map uses to compare keys and values for equality. If you instantiate a map directly using new Ice.HashMap() without specifying comparator functions, the default comparators use the === operator to compare keys and values. As an example, the following map compares its keys and values using equals methods:

    JavaScript
    function compareEquals(a, b)
    {
        return a.equals(b);
    }
    var m = new Ice.HashMap(compareEquals, compareEquals);
    

    The valueComparator function is only used when comparing two maps for equality.

    The type-specific constructor generated for a Slice dictionary supplies comparator functions appropriate for its key and value types.

  • equals(other, valueComparator)
    Returns true if this map compares equal to the given map, false otherwise. You can optionally supply a function for valueComparator that the map uses when comparing values; this function takes precedence over the comparator supplied to the map's constructor.
  • clone()
    Returns a shallow copy of the map.

Legal key types for HashMap include JavaScript's primitive types along with nullNaN, and any object that defines a hashCode method. The generated code for a Slice structure that qualifies as a legal dictionary key type includes a hashCode method. Suppose we define another dictionary type:

Slice
dictionary<Employee, string> EmployeeDeptMap;

The Slice compiler generates a constructor function equivalent to the following code:

JavaScript
class EmployeeDeptMap extends Ice.HashMap
{
    constructor(h)
    {
        let keyComparator = ...;
        let valueComparator = ...;
        super(h || keyComparator, valueComparator);
    }
}

Since the key is a user-defined structure type, the map requires a comparator that properly compares keys. Instantiating a map using new EmployeeDeptMap automatically sets the comparators, whereas calling new Ice.HashMap in this case would require you to supply your own comparators.

Slice dictionaries that map to a HashMap must be instantiated using the generated constructor.

Notes

  • Attempting to use the map[key] = value syntax to add an element to the map will not have the desired effect; you must use the set function instead.


See Also

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