Simple CoffeeScript Comprehensions

Even the most ardent CoffeeScript critic might have to admit that the language provides some syntax improvements. One of the most useful features is array comprehensions. Quite simply, a comprehension allows you to easily transform one list into another.

The Deets…

When we write loops, we usually don’t think of them as expressions that return a value. Instead, we often run them for their side-effects. Often we are performing some operation on each element, but sometimes we want to change the array or collection into something different instead of operating on it.

In many languages, like JavaScript, you’ll often see something like “array.push(element)” inside of a loop body, but we have a shortcut. In CoffeeScript, (most) everything is an expression, meaning that loops return a value. If you set a loop equal to a variable, that variable’s value will be equal to the return value of the last loop iteration. If you want to capture the return value of each iteration, you can wrap the loop in parenthesis.

In this code, we have an array of object literals written in CoffeeScript:

characters = [
    name: 'Jules Winnfield'
    occupation: 'Gangster'
    catchphrase: "'What' ain't no country I've ever heard of. They speak English in 'What'?"
  ,
    name: 'Vincent Vega'
    occupation: 'Gangster'
    catchphrase: 'I could use a foot massage myself.'
  ,
    name: 'The Gimp'
    occupation: 'Gimp'
    catchphrase: 'The Gimp does not talk.'
  ,
    name: 'Winston Wolf'
    occupation: 'Gangster'
    catchphrase: "If I'm curt with you it's beacuse time is a factor."
  ,
    name: 'Marsellus Wallace'
    occupation: 'Gangster'
    catchphrase: "You ain't got no problem, Jules. I'm on the [task]."
]

# names is equal to ['Jules Winnfield','Vincent Vega','The Gimp','Winston Wolf','Marsellus Wallace']
names = (character.name for character in characters)

# with no parenthesis, names is equal to 'Marsellus Wallace'
names = character.name for character in characters

On line 23, you’ll see the loop. It simply rolls over each object in the array and returns the name of the character. The parenthesis capture the result of each iteration in an array, so the value of names is actually an array of the names in each object. The trick lies in the parathesis though; if you don’t have them, names will just equal the name from the last loop iteration, which in this case would equal ‘Marsellus Wallace’.

Ooohhhh, and Filtering

Another useful loop trick we can use is the when keyword. It allows you to tack a boolean expression onto the end of the loop that must evaulate to true, or the loop will skip the iteration. If you needed an array of the names that had the occupation of ‘gangster’, you could use when to save yourself an if statement inside the loop.

# gangsters is equal to ['Jules Winnfield','Vincent Vega','Winston Wolf','Marsellus Wallace']
gangsters = (character.name for character in characters when character.occupation != 'Gimp')

May you never write array.push(element) again! Happy looping.