Transforming a Javascript iterable into an array

I'm trying to use the new Map object from Javascript EC6, since it's already supported in the latest Firefox and Chrome versions.

But I'm finding it very limited in "functional" programming, because it lacks classic map, filter etc. methods that would work nicely with a [key, value] pair. It has a forEach but that does NOT returns the callback result.

If I could transform its map.entries() from a MapIterator into a simple Array I could then use the standard .map, .filter with no additional hacks.

Is there a "good" way to transform a Javascript Iterator into an Array? In python it's as easy as doing list(iterator)... but Array(m.entries()) return an array with the Iterator as its first element!!!

EDIT

I forgot to specify I'm looking for an answer which works wherever Map works, which means at least Chrome and Firefox (Array.from does not work in Chrome).

PS.

I know there's the fantastic wu.js but its dependency on traceur puts me off...

You are looking for the new Array.from function which converts arbitrary iterables to array instances:

var arr = Array.from(map.entries());

It is now supported in Edge, FF, Chrome and Node 4+.

Of course, it might be worth to define map, filter and similar methods directly on the iterator interface, so that you can avoid allocating the array. You also might want to use a generator function instead of higher-order functions:

function* map(iterable) {
    var i = 0;
    for (var item of iterable)
        yield yourTransformation(item, i++);
}
function* filter(iterable) {
    var i = 0;
    for (var item of iterable)
        if (yourPredicate(item, i++))
             yield item;
}

[...map.entries()] or Array.from(map.entries())

It's super-easy.

Anyway - iterators lack reduce, filter, and similar methods. You have to write them on your own, as it's more perfomant than converting Map to array and back. But don't to do jumps Map -> Array -> Map -> Array -> Map -> Array, because it will kill performance.

There's no need to transform a Map into an Array. You could simply create map and filter functions for Map objects:

function map(functor, object, self) {
    var result = new Map;

    object.forEach(function (value, key, object) {
        result.set(key, functor.call(this, value, key, object));
    }, self);

    return result;
}

function filter(predicate, object, self) {
    var result = new Map;

    object.forEach(function (value, key, object) {
        if (predicate.call(this, value, key, object)) result.set(key, value);
    }, self);

    return result;
}

For example, you could append a bang (i.e. ! character) to the value of each entry of a map whose key is a primitive.

var object = new Map;

object.set("", "empty string");
object.set(0,  "number zero");
object.set(object, "itself");

var result = map(appendBang, filter(primitive, object));

alert(result.get(""));     // empty string!
alert(result.get(0));      // number zero!
alert(result.get(object)); // undefined

function primitive(value, key) {
    return isPrimitive(key);
}

function appendBang(value) {
    return value + "!";
}

function isPrimitive(value) {
    var type = typeof value;
    return value === null ||
        type !== "object" &&
        type !== "function";
}

<script>
function map(functor, object, self) {
    var result = new Map;

    object.forEach(function (value, key, object) {
        result.set(key, functor.call(this, value, key, object));
    }, self || null);

    return result;
}

function filter(predicate, object, self) {
    var result = new Map;

    object.forEach(function (value, key, object) {
        if (predicate.call(this, value, key, object)) result.set(key, value);
    }, self || null);

    return result;
}
</script>

You could also add map and filter methods on Map.prototype to make it read better. Although it is generally not advised to modify native prototypes yet I believe that an exception may be made in the case of map and filter for Map.prototype:

var object = new Map;

object.set("", "empty string");
object.set(0,  "number zero");
object.set(object, "itself");

var result = object.filter(primitive).map(appendBang);

alert(result.get(""));     // empty string!
alert(result.get(0));      // number zero!
alert(result.get(object)); // undefined

function primitive(value, key) {
    return isPrimitive(key);
}

function appendBang(value) {
    return value + "!";
}

function isPrimitive(value) {
    var type = typeof value;
    return value === null ||
        type !== "object" &&
        type !== "function";
}

<script>
Map.prototype.map = function (functor, self) {
    var result = new Map;

    this.forEach(function (value, key, object) {
        result.set(key, functor.call(this, value, key, object));
    }, self || null);

    return result;
};

Map.prototype.filter = function (predicate, self) {
    var result = new Map;

    this.forEach(function (value, key, object) {
        if (predicate.call(this, value, key, object)) result.set(key, value);
    }, self || null);

    return result;
};
</script>

---

Edit: In Bergi's answer, he created generic map and filter generator functions for all iterable objects. The advantage of using them is that since they are generator functions, they don't allocate intermediate iterable objects.

For example, my map and filter functions defined above create new Map objects. Hence calling object.filter(primitive).map(appendBang) creates two new Map objects:

var intermediate = object.filter(primitive);
var result = intermediate.map(appendBang);

Creating intermediate iterable objects is expensive. Bergi's generator functions solve this problem. They do not allocate intermediate objects but allow one iterator to feed its values lazily to the next. This kind of optimization is known as fusion or deforestation in functional programming languages and it can significantly improve program performance.

The only problem I have with Bergi's generator functions is that they are not specific to Map objects. Instead, they are generalized for all iterable objects. Hence instead of calling the callback functions with (value, key) pairs (as I would expect when mapping over a Map), it calls the callback functions with (value, index) pairs. Otherwise, it's an excellent solution and I would definitely recommend using it over the solutions that I provided.

So these are the specific generator functions that I would use for mapping over and filtering Map objects:

function * map(functor, entries, self) {
    var that = self || null;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key   = entry[0];
        var value = entry[1];

        yield [key, functor.call(that, value, key, entries)];
    }
}

function * filter(predicate, entries, self) {
    var that = self || null;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key    = entry[0];
        var value  = entry[1];

        if (predicate.call(that, value, key, entries)) yield [key, value];
    }
}

function toMap(entries) {
    var result = new Map;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key   = entry[0];
        var value = entry[1];

        result.set(key, value);
    }

    return result;
}

function toArray(entries) {
    var array = [];

    for (var entry of entries) {
        array.push(entry[1]);
    }

    return array;
}

They can be used as follows:

var object = new Map;

object.set("", "empty string");
object.set(0,  "number zero");
object.set(object, "itself");

var result = toMap(map(appendBang, filter(primitive, object.entries())));

alert(result.get(""));     // empty string!
alert(result.get(0));      // number zero!
alert(result.get(object)); // undefined

var array  = toArray(map(appendBang, filter(primitive, object.entries())));

alert(JSON.stringify(array, null, 4));

function primitive(value, key) {
    return isPrimitive(key);
}

function appendBang(value) {
    return value + "!";
}

function isPrimitive(value) {
    var type = typeof value;
    return value === null ||
        type !== "object" &&
        type !== "function";
}

<script>
function * map(functor, entries, self) {
    var that = self || null;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key   = entry[0];
        var value = entry[1];

        yield [key, functor.call(that, value, key, entries)];
    }
}

function * filter(predicate, entries, self) {
    var that = self || null;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key    = entry[0];
        var value  = entry[1];

        if (predicate.call(that, value, key, entries)) yield [key, value];
    }
}

function toMap(entries) {
    var result = new Map;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key   = entry[0];
        var value = entry[1];

        result.set(key, value);
    }

    return result;
}

function toArray(entries) {
    var array = [];

    for (var entry of entries) {
        array.push(entry[1]);
    }

    return array;
}
</script>

If you want a more fluent interface then you could do something like this:

var object = new Map;

object.set("", "empty string");
object.set(0,  "number zero");
object.set(object, "itself");

var result = new MapEntries(object).filter(primitive).map(appendBang).toMap();

alert(result.get(""));     // empty string!
alert(result.get(0));      // number zero!
alert(result.get(object)); // undefined

var array  = new MapEntries(object).filter(primitive).map(appendBang).toArray();

alert(JSON.stringify(array, null, 4));

function primitive(value, key) {
    return isPrimitive(key);
}

function appendBang(value) {
    return value + "!";
}

function isPrimitive(value) {
    var type = typeof value;
    return value === null ||
        type !== "object" &&
        type !== "function";
}

<script>
MapEntries.prototype = {
    constructor: MapEntries,
    map: function (functor, self) {
        return new MapEntries(map(functor, this.entries, self), true);
    },
    filter: function (predicate, self) {
        return new MapEntries(filter(predicate, this.entries, self), true);
    },
    toMap: function () {
        return toMap(this.entries);
    },
    toArray: function () {
        return toArray(this.entries);
    }
};

function MapEntries(map, entries) {
    this.entries = entries ? map : map.entries();
}

function * map(functor, entries, self) {
    var that = self || null;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key   = entry[0];
        var value = entry[1];

        yield [key, functor.call(that, value, key, entries)];
    }
}

function * filter(predicate, entries, self) {
    var that = self || null;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key    = entry[0];
        var value  = entry[1];

        if (predicate.call(that, value, key, entries)) yield [key, value];
    }
}

function toMap(entries) {
    var result = new Map;

    for (var entry of entries) {
        var key   = entry[0];
        var value = entry[1];

        result.set(key, value);
    }

    return result;
}

function toArray(entries) {
    var array = [];

    for (var entry of entries) {
        array.push(entry[1]);
    }

    return array;
}
</script>

Hope that helps.

A small update from 2019:

Now Array.from seems to be universally available, and, furthermore, it accepts a second argument mapFn, which prevents it from creating an intermediate array. This basically looks like this:

Array.from(myMap.entries(), entry => {...});

You can get the array of arrays (key and value):

[...this.state.selected.entries()]
/**
*(2) [Array(2), Array(2)]
*0: (2) [2, true]
*1: (2) [3, true]
*length: 2
*/

And then, you can easly get values from inside, like for example the keys with the map iterator.

[...this.state.selected[asd].entries()].map(e=>e[0])
//(2) [2, 3]

You could use a library like https://www.npmjs.com/package/itiriri that implements array-like methods for iterables:

import { query } from 'itiriri';

const map = new Map();
map.set(1, 'Alice');
map.set(2, 'Bob');

const result = query(map)
  .filter([k, v] => v.indexOf('A') >= 0)
  .map([k, v] => `k - ${v.toUpperCase()}`);

for (const r of result) {
  console.log(r); // prints: 1 - ALICE
}

You can also use fluent-iterable to transform to array:

const iterable: Iterable<T> = ...;
const arr: T[] = fluent(iterable).toArray();

Using iter-ops library, you can use filter and map operations directly on the Map, or any iterable object, without converting it into an array:

import {filter, map, pipe} from 'iter-ops';

const m = new Map<number, number>();

m.set(0, 12);
m.set(1, 34);

const r = pipe(
    m,
    filter(([key, value]) => {
        // return the filter flag as required
    }),
    map(([key, value]) => {
        // return the re-mapped value as required
    })
);

console.log([...r]); //=> print all resulting values