Merging two objects/array

[cs.punk]

Hey guys.

 

What I am trying to do is have a page that updates the records every time period (15 seconds?).

 

So it keeps a local 'array' and it downloads the updated 'record list' via ajax (will implement this later).

It then checks which records are missing from local one and updates it if necessary.

 

For now my question is should I be using objects/arrays to store the record list. If object, how do I sort the list?

 

Thank you.

 

<script type='text/javascript'>

var users = {
						1 : ["Jay", 11],
						2 : ["Bob", 12],
						3 : ["Chris", 18]
					  };

var jsonOb = {"users": {
						3 : ["Chris", 18],
						4 : ["Joe", 17],
						5 : ["Jack", 16]
					   }
			 };

for (var i in jsonOb.users)
{
	if (users[i] == null)
	{
		alert ('Added:' + i);
		users[i] = jsonOb.users[i];
	}
}

console.debug(users);
</script>

[Adam]

You're using them the wrong way round; you should have an array of user objects, not an object of user arrays. I'm assuming the array index is the user ID? If so you should be able to use the concact() method of the array object (everything is an object in JavaScript, even arrays) to merge the two.

 

Edit

 

As for sorting, you could wrap the array within a 'collection' type object, that provides methods for sorting based on an item's property within the collection. As a base to start from:

 

function UserCollection(users)
{
    this.collection = users;

    this.merge = function(more_users)
    {
        this.collection.conact(more_users);
    }

    this.sortBy = function(property)
    {
        // Sort the users by property provided
    }
}

 

You would then instantiate a UserCollection object like so:

 

var collection = new UserCollection(users); // 'users' being your JSON data

// Merge more users
collection.merge(more_users); // 'more_users' being the additional JSON data

 

It's only a basic example, but might help you structure the code better.

[Adam]

Typo in the merge() method - should be "concat(..".