JavaScript Range Proposal
This is a proposal to add a way to define ranges of numbers in a straight forward manner without requiring a hacky or long winded solution.
I feel this is different to other similar proposals in that this would make it more as a part of arrays rather than another function which would make it far smoother and easier to use
This feature exists in other languages
- Haskell
[a..b]&[a,n..b] - F#
[|a..b|]&[|a..n..b|] - PHP
range(a,b)&range(a,b,n) - R
a:b&seq(a,b,by=n)
Limited alternatives in other languages
- C#
Enumerable.Range(a, b) - Python
range(a, b+1) - Java
Range.between(a, b) - Coffeescript
a..b
Motivation
The current solution in JavaScript to get a range of numbersfrom a to b (inclusive) is to use a solution which applies the keys of an array into another array and then mapping to move to start at a
[...new Array(b-a+1).keys()].map(x => x+a)
And if a step is required
[...new Array(Math.floor((b-a)/n)+1).keys()].map(x => n*x+a)
I find myself needing to use an equivilant of [0..b] and [0..n..b] all the time but the solutions for those are bulky. Other languages have a way to do this an intended way and it would be a useful tool to have access to.
Basic Idea
I propose that a syntax similar to F# should be used. a is first number (not necessarily smallest), b is last number (not necessarily the biggest), and n is the gap.
Ranges would be a to b by optional n (multiple) inclusive.
Example Usage
The example codes below shows intended syntax, output, and JS equivilant
a to b
Explicit bounds
[1..5] = [1,2,3,4,5] [...new Array(b-a+1).keys()].map(x => a+x)
[6..3] = [6,5,4,3] [...new Array(a-b+1).keys()].map(x => a-x)
Implicit bounds
Missing bounds are implicitly 0
[..4] = [0,1,2,3,4] [...new Array(b+1).keys()]
[2..] = [2,1,0] [...new Array(a+1).keys()].map(x=>a-x)
a to b by n
Ranges stepping by n will not go past b
Explicit bounds
[1..2..5] = [1,3,5] [...new Array(Math.floor((b-a)/n)+1).keys()].map(x => n*x+a)
[1..2..6] = [1,3,5]
[5..2..1] = [5,3,1] [...new Array(Math.floor((a-b)/n)+1).keys()].map(x => a-n*x)
[6..2..1] = [6,4,2]
Implicit bounds
Missing bounds are implicitly 0
[..2..5] = [0,2,4] [...new Array(Math.floor(b/n)+1).keys()].map(x => n*x)
[..2..6] = [0,2,4,6]
[5..2..] = [5,3,1] [...new Array(Math.floor(a/n)+1).keys()].map(x => a-n*x)
[6..2..] = [6,4,2,0]
Further Ideas
Multiple gaps
These gaps would alternate applying, so gaps 1 and 2 would add 1 then 2 and stops before going over b
[1..1..2..10] = [1,2,4,5,7,8,10]
[1..0..1..4] = [1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4]
let abns = (a,b,...n) => {
let arr = [], p = a, i = 0
for(let p = a; p <= b; p+=n[i++%n.length])
arr.push(p)
return arr
}
Float ranges
[0..0.2..1] = [0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1]
[0...2..1] = [0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1] //Without leading 0
[0.5..3] = [0.5,1.5,2.5]
[0..1..2.2] = [0,1,2]
Open Questions
- If
aandbare missing, would it throw an error or return[0]
[..] = [0..0] = [0]
[..2..] = [0..2..0] = [0]
- If
ni missing, would it interpret it as1, this might be useful for multiple gaps but could be confusing and doesn't present any benefit
[2....5] = [2..1..5] = [2,3,4,5]
[1..0....4] = [1..0..1..4] = [1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4]
[1....0......3] = [1..1..0..1..1..7] = [1,2,2,3,4,5,5,6,7]
- Is
..too ambigious in some situations and could be replaced with:, would also make it smaller
[1:4] = [1,2,3,4]
[3:2:8] = [3,5,7]
[1.3:.2:2.5] = [1.3,1.5,1.7,1.9,2.1,2.3,2.5]
Alternatives
- You can do everything with applying an array's keys to another array but it's unnecessarily complicated
-
Lodash does have
_.range(a,b,n?) - Coffeescript has
[a..b](scroll down to the section below)