Book Image

Learning JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms - Third Edition

Book Image

Learning JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms - Third Edition

Overview of this book

A data structure is a particular way of organizing data in a computer to utilize resources efficiently. Data structures and algorithms are the base of every solution to any programming problem. With this book, you will learn to write complex and powerful code using the latest ES 2017 features. Learning JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms begins by covering the basics of JavaScript and introduces you to ECMAScript 2017, before gradually moving on to the most important data structures such as arrays, queues, stacks, and linked lists. You will gain in-depth knowledge of how hash tables and set data structures function as well as how trees and hash maps can be used to search files in an HD or represent a database. This book serves as a route to take you deeper into JavaScript. You’ll also get a greater understanding of why and how graphs, one of the most complex data structures, are largely used in GPS navigation systems in social networks. Toward the end of the book, you’ll discover how all the theories presented in this book can be applied to solve real-world problems while working on your own computer networks and Facebook searches.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Title Page
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Arrays in TypeScript


All the source code from this chapter is valid TypeScript code. The difference is that TypeScript will do type checking at compile time to make sure we are only manipulating arrays in which all values have the same datatype.

If we take a look at the preceding code, it is the same numbers array as we declared in previous sections of this chapter:

const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; 

Due to the type inference, TypeScript understands that the declaration of the numbers array is the same as const numbers: number[]. For this reason, we do not need to always explicitly declare the variable type if we initialize it during its declaration.

If we go back to the sorting example of the friends array, we can refactor the code to the following in TypeScript:

interface Person { 
  name: string; 
  age: number; 
} 
 
// const friends: {name: string, age: number}[]; 
const friends = [ 
  { name: 'John', age: 30 }, 
  { name: 'Ana', age: 20 }, 
  { name: 'Chris', age: 25 } 
...