javascript default assignment

How TO - Set Default Parameters

Learn how to set default parameter values for JavaScript functions.

Default Parameters

If a function in JavaScript is called with missing arguments (less than declared), the missing values are set to undefined .

Sometimes this is acceptable, but sometimes it is better to assign a default value to the parameter:

Read more about functions in our JavaScript Function Tutorial .

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Destructuring assignment

The two most used data structures in JavaScript are Object and Array .

• Objects allow us to create a single entity that stores data items by key.
• Arrays allow us to gather data items into an ordered list.

However, when we pass these to a function, we may not need all of it. The function might only require certain elements or properties.

Destructuring assignment is a special syntax that allows us to “unpack” arrays or objects into a bunch of variables, as sometimes that’s more convenient.

Destructuring also works well with complex functions that have a lot of parameters, default values, and so on. Soon we’ll see that.

Array destructuring

Here’s an example of how an array is destructured into variables:

Now we can work with variables instead of array members.

It looks great when combined with split or other array-returning methods:

As you can see, the syntax is simple. There are several peculiar details though. Let’s see more examples to understand it better.

It’s called “destructuring assignment,” because it “destructurizes” by copying items into variables. However, the array itself is not modified.

It’s just a shorter way to write:

Unwanted elements of the array can also be thrown away via an extra comma:

In the code above, the second element of the array is skipped, the third one is assigned to title , and the rest of the array items are also skipped (as there are no variables for them).

…Actually, we can use it with any iterable, not only arrays:

That works, because internally a destructuring assignment works by iterating over the right value. It’s a kind of syntax sugar for calling for..of over the value to the right of = and assigning the values.

We can use any “assignables” on the left side.

For instance, an object property:

In the previous chapter, we saw the Object.entries(obj) method.

We can use it with destructuring to loop over the keys-and-values of an object:

The similar code for a Map is simpler, as it’s iterable:

There’s a well-known trick for swapping values of two variables using a destructuring assignment:

Here we create a temporary array of two variables and immediately destructure it in swapped order.

We can swap more than two variables this way.

The rest ‘…’

Usually, if the array is longer than the list at the left, the “extra” items are omitted.

For example, here only two items are taken, and the rest is just ignored:

If we’d like also to gather all that follows – we can add one more parameter that gets “the rest” using three dots "..." :

The value of rest is the array of the remaining array elements.

We can use any other variable name in place of rest , just make sure it has three dots before it and goes last in the destructuring assignment.

Default values

If the array is shorter than the list of variables on the left, there will be no errors. Absent values are considered undefined:

If we want a “default” value to replace the missing one, we can provide it using = :

Default values can be more complex expressions or even function calls. They are evaluated only if the value is not provided.

For instance, here we use the prompt function for two defaults:

Please note: the prompt will run only for the missing value ( surname ).

Object destructuring

The destructuring assignment also works with objects.

The basic syntax is:

We should have an existing object on the right side, that we want to split into variables. The left side contains an object-like “pattern” for corresponding properties. In the simplest case, that’s a list of variable names in {...} .

For instance:

Properties options.title , options.width and options.height are assigned to the corresponding variables.

The order does not matter. This works too:

The pattern on the left side may be more complex and specify the mapping between properties and variables.

If we want to assign a property to a variable with another name, for instance, make options.width go into the variable named w , then we can set the variable name using a colon:

The colon shows “what : goes where”. In the example above the property width goes to w , property height goes to h , and title is assigned to the same name.

For potentially missing properties we can set default values using "=" , like this:

Just like with arrays or function parameters, default values can be any expressions or even function calls. They will be evaluated if the value is not provided.

In the code below prompt asks for width , but not for title :

We also can combine both the colon and equality:

If we have a complex object with many properties, we can extract only what we need:

The rest pattern “…”

What if the object has more properties than we have variables? Can we take some and then assign the “rest” somewhere?

We can use the rest pattern, just like we did with arrays. It’s not supported by some older browsers (IE, use Babel to polyfill it), but works in modern ones.

It looks like this:

In the examples above variables were declared right in the assignment: let {…} = {…} . Of course, we could use existing variables too, without let . But there’s a catch.

This won’t work:

The problem is that JavaScript treats {...} in the main code flow (not inside another expression) as a code block. Such code blocks can be used to group statements, like this:

So here JavaScript assumes that we have a code block, that’s why there’s an error. We want destructuring instead.

To show JavaScript that it’s not a code block, we can wrap the expression in parentheses (...) :

Nested destructuring

If an object or an array contains other nested objects and arrays, we can use more complex left-side patterns to extract deeper portions.

In the code below options has another object in the property size and an array in the property items . The pattern on the left side of the assignment has the same structure to extract values from them:

All properties of options object except extra which is absent in the left part, are assigned to corresponding variables:

Finally, we have width , height , item1 , item2 and title from the default value.

Note that there are no variables for size and items , as we take their content instead.

Smart function parameters

There are times when a function has many parameters, most of which are optional. That’s especially true for user interfaces. Imagine a function that creates a menu. It may have a width, a height, a title, an item list and so on.

Here’s a bad way to write such a function:

In real-life, the problem is how to remember the order of arguments. Usually, IDEs try to help us, especially if the code is well-documented, but still… Another problem is how to call a function when most parameters are ok by default.

That’s ugly. And becomes unreadable when we deal with more parameters.

Destructuring comes to the rescue!

We can pass parameters as an object, and the function immediately destructurizes them into variables:

We can also use more complex destructuring with nested objects and colon mappings:

The full syntax is the same as for a destructuring assignment:

Then, for an object of parameters, there will be a variable varName for the property incomingProperty , with defaultValue by default.

Please note that such destructuring assumes that showMenu() does have an argument. If we want all values by default, then we should specify an empty object:

We can fix this by making {} the default value for the whole object of parameters:

In the code above, the whole arguments object is {} by default, so there’s always something to destructurize.

Destructuring assignment allows for instantly mapping an object or array onto many variables.

The full object syntax:

This means that property prop should go into the variable varName and, if no such property exists, then the default value should be used.

Object properties that have no mapping are copied to the rest object.

The full array syntax:

The first item goes to item1 ; the second goes into item2 , and all the rest makes the array rest .

It’s possible to extract data from nested arrays/objects, for that the left side must have the same structure as the right one.

We have an object:

Write the destructuring assignment that reads:

• name property into the variable name .
• years property into the variable age .
• isAdmin property into the variable isAdmin (false, if no such property)

Here’s an example of the values after your assignment:

The maximal salary

There is a salaries object:

Create the function topSalary(salaries) that returns the name of the top-paid person.

• If salaries is empty, it should return null .
• If there are multiple top-paid persons, return any of them.

P.S. Use Object.entries and destructuring to iterate over key/value pairs.

Open a sandbox with tests.

Open the solution with tests in a sandbox.

• If you have suggestions what to improve - please submit a GitHub issue or a pull request instead of commenting.
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• To insert few words of code, use the <code> tag, for several lines – wrap them in <pre> tag, for more than 10 lines – use a sandbox ( plnkr , jsbin , codepen …)

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Home » JavaScript Array Methods » ES6 Destructuring Assignment

ES6 Destructuring Assignment

Summary : in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the ES6 destructuring assignment that allows you to destructure an array into individual variables.

ES6 provides a new feature called destructing assignment that allows you to destructure properties of an object or elements of an array into individual variables.

Let’s start with the array destructuring.

Introduction to JavaScript Array destructuring

Assuming that you have a function that returns an array of numbers as follows:

The following invokes the getScores() function and assigns the returned value to a variable:

To get the individual score, you need to do like this:

Prior to ES6, there was no direct way to assign the elements of the returned array to multiple variables such as x , y and z .

Fortunately, starting from ES6, you can use the destructing assignment as follows:

The variables x , y and z will take the values of the first, second, and third elements of the returned array.

Note that the square brackets [] look like the array syntax but they are not.

If the getScores() function returns an array of two elements, the third variable will be undefined , like this:

In case the getScores() function returns an array that has more than three elements, the remaining elements are discarded. For example:

Array Destructuring Assignment and Rest syntax

It’s possible to take all remaining elements of an array and put them in a new array by using the rest syntax (...) :

The variables x and y receive values of the first two elements of the returned array. And the args variable receives all the remaining arguments, which are the last two elements of the returned array.

Note that it’s possible to destructure an array in the assignment that separates from the variable’s declaration. For example:

Setting default values

See the following example:

How it works:

• First, declare the getItems() function that returns an array of two numbers.
• Then, assign the items variable to the returned array of the getItems() function.
• Finally, check if the third element exists in the array. If not, assign the value 0 to the thirdItem variable.

It’ll be simpler with the destructuring assignment with a default value:

If the value taken from the array is undefined , you can assign the variable a default value, like this:

If the getItems() function doesn’t return an array and you expect an array, the destructing assignment will result in an error. For example:

A typical way to solve this is to fallback the returned value of the getItems() function to an empty array like this:

Nested array destructuring

The following function returns an array that contains an element which is another array, or nested array:

Since the third element of the returned array is another array, you need to use the nested array destructuring syntax to destructure it, like this:

Array Destructuring Assignment Applications

Let’s see some practical examples of using the array destructuring assignment syntax.

1) Swapping variables

The array destructuring makes it easy to swap values of variables without using a temporary variable:

2) Functions that return multiple values

In JavaScript, a function can return a value. However, you can return an array that contains multiple values, for example:

And then you use the array destructuring assignment syntax to destructure the elements of the return array into variables:

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the ES6 destructuring assignment to destructure elements in an array into individual variables.

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Using default with export

The default keyword can be used in two situations in JavaScript: within a  switch statement, or with an  export statement.

Within a  switch statement:

With  export statement:

Description

For more details see the

• switch statement and
• export statement pages.

Using default in switch statements

In the following example, if expr  evaluates to "Bananas" or "Apples", the program matches the values with either the case "Bananas" or "Apples" and executes the corresponding statement. The default keyword will help in any other case and executes the associated statement.

If you want to export a single value or need a fallback value for a module, a default export can be used:

Then, in another script, it will be straightforward to import the default export:

Specifications

Browser compatibility, document tags and contributors.

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• Using Global Human Resources

Business Title Defaulting for Assignment in Employment Flows

The assignment is identified with the business title and the title is defaulted from the job or position in responsive employment flows using the ORA_PER_EMPL_DEFAULT_BUSINESS_TITLE_FROM profile option code.

The business title for the Mass Legal Employer Change flow is defaulted from the source assignment irrespective of the profile option.

The business title for the Convert Pending Worker flows (Convert, Quick Convert, and ESS process) is defaulted from the source pending worker assignment irrespective of the profile option.

This table shows how the business title is defaulted based on the profile option:

This table shows the application behavior in the responsive employment flows based on the value configured for the profile option:

Display of Business Title for Multiple Assignments

You can identify and select the appropriate assignment by viewing assignment attributes in the Business Title list of values (LOV) on the Employment Info page. Additionally, you can identify the required assignment in document records by configuring additional assignment attributes to display in the Business Title LoV. This is the order of the attributes available in the Business Title LOV:

Business title

Assignment number

Legal employer

Worker type

Location (shows only if the value exists in the assignment)

HR status (shows only if the assignment is suspended or inactive)

The attributes in the LOV are sorted first based on the HR status (in ascending order of Active, Inactive, or Suspended) followed by the assignment creation date (in descending order of the latest date first).

For example, this is how the attributes look for a worker with an active assignment, suspended assignment, or inactive assignment (with no location):

For an active assignment: Manager Information Systems; E10101010; Vision Corporation; Employee; Alberta, CA

For a suspended assignment: Management Consultant; E10101010-1; Vision Corporation; Employee; Alberta, CA; Suspended - Payroll Eligible

For an inactive assignment: Management Trainer; E10101010-2; Vision Corporation; Employee; Inactive - No Payroll

• Set the ORA_PER_EMPL_ENABLE_WRK_ASG_REST_LOV profile option to Y.
• Use the Search Configuration in HCM Experience Design Studio to configure the Worker Assignment LoV.
• Displayed on the Employment Info page, only when the selected worker has more than 1 assignment.
• Lists assignments which are in any of these HR Statuses: Active, Suspended, Inactive.
• Lists all assignment types except the Offer assignment.
• Supports assignment-level security and lists only those assignments for the selected worker for which the logged in user has access.
• Active primary (Primary_Flag = Y, Primary_Assignment_Flag = Y)
• Active primary (Primary_Flag = N, Primary_Assignment_Flag = Y) Internal order by Assignment Creation Date
• Active non-primary (Primary_Flag = N, Primary_Assignment_Flag = N) Internal order by Assignment Creation Date
• Suspended primary (Primary_Flag = Y, Primary_Assignment_Flag = Y) Internal order by Assignment Creation Date
• Suspended primary (Primary_Flag = N, Primary_Assignment_Flag = Y) Internal order by Assignment Creation Date
• Suspended non-primary (Primary_Flag = N, Primary_Assignment_Flag = N) Internal order by Assignment Creation Date
• Inactive - Internal order by Assignment Creation Date

Related Topics

• Employment Profile Options