Does jQuery have a hashtable type mutable data structure?

Question

Pseudo-code is probably the best way to show what I'm looking to do in jQuery:

$(selector).each(function() {
    // pull data from LI tags or whatever, store in variables (imgURL, tagline, summary)
    $someDataStructure.add({imgURL, tagline, summary});
});

Then later... reference the structure

 $someDataStructure.each(function() {
     var x = $someDataStructure['imgURL'];
     // etc.
 });

Any suggestions on how I could go about doing this?

Answer 1

jQuery is just JavaScript, and JavaScript has objects. You can use JS Objects similarly to a C++ map or C# Dictionary. For example, you can create an array of objects and have indices that you can name:

var liTags = [];

$(selector).each(function() {
   // pull data from LI tags or whatever
   //store in variables (imgURL, tagline, summary)
   liTags.push({'imgURL': imgURL, 'tagline': tagline, 'summary': summary});
});

Then later:

for(int i = 0; i < liTags.length; ++i) {
   var imgURL = liTags[i]['imgURL']; //or liTags[i].imgURL;
}

Answer 2

You can actually attach data to a jquery element using the data api

So do something in the lines of:

$(selector).each(function() {
    /* I suppose here you have three available variables named:
       imgURL, tagline, summary
        that you got from the element itself or from somewhere else
     */
    $(this).data({imgURL: imgURL, tagline: tagline, summary:summary })
    /* you could also write it {'imgURL': imgURL, etc. } if it looks clearer: the first is the hashtable key, the second a variable containing the value */
}

and then just retrieve it from each jquery element!

$(selector).data()

or

$(selector).data('imgURL')

That's for attaching an 'hashtable' to an element.

In javascript you have 'associative arrays' (hashtables).

You can write them as: myarray = {key:'value'}

and you can access them as:

myarray['attribute'] or myarray.attribute as you prefer

PS. please note that I did not test the code up there, it might require some minor tweaks