Using constants as indices for JavaScript associative arrays

Question

I'm looking to create an associative array in JavaScript, but use constants defined as part of the class as indices.

The reason I want this is so that users of the class can use the constants (which define events) to trigger actions.

Some code to illustrate:

STATE_NORMAL = 0;
STATE_NEW_TASK_ADDED = 0;
this.curr_state = STATE_NEW_TASK_ADDED;

this.state_machine = {
    /* Prototype:
    STATE_NAME: {
        EVENT_NAME: {
            "next_state": new_state_name,
            "action": func
        }
    }
    */

    STATE_NEW_TASK_ADDED : { // I'd like this to be a constant
        this.EVENT_NEW_TASK_ADDED_AJAX : {
            "next_state": STATE_NEW_TASK_ADDED,
            "action" : function() {console.log("new task added");},
        }
    }
}

// Public data members.
// These define the various events that can happen.
this.EVENT_NEW_TASK_ADDED_AJAX = 0;
this.EVENT_NEW_TASK_ADDED_AJAX = 1;

I'm having trouble getting this to work. I'm not too great with JavaScript, but it looks like no matter what I do, the array gets defined with strings and not constants. Is there a way to force the array to use the constants?

Answer 1

In ECMAScript 6 you can use computed values for object keys:

var CONSTANT_A = 0, CONSTANT_B = 1
var state_machine = {
    [CONSTANT_A]: function () {
        return 'a'
    },
    [CONSTANT_B]: function () {
        return 'b'
    }
};

console.log(state_machine)

This does not work in Internet Explorer 11 nor in Safari browsers: https://kangax.github.io/compat-table/es6/#test-object_literal_extensions_computed_properties