Structs in Javascript

Question

Previously, when I needed to store a number of related variables, I'd create a class.

function Item(id, speaker, country) {
    this.id = id;
    this.speaker = spkr;
    this.country = country;
}
var myItems = [
    new Item(1, 'john', 'au'),
    new Item(2, 'mary', 'us')
];

But I'm wondering if this is a good practice. Are there any other, better ways to simulate a struct in Javascript?

Answer 1

The only difference between object literals and constructed objects are the properties inherited from the prototype.

var o = {
  'a': 3, 'b': 4,
  'doStuff': function() {
    alert(this.a + this.b);
  }
};
o.doStuff(); // displays: 7

---

You could make a struct factory.

function makeStruct(names) {
  var names = names.split(' ');
  var count = names.length;
  function constructor() {
    for (var i = 0; i < count; i++) {
      this[names[i]] = arguments[i];
    }
  }
  return constructor;
}

var Item = makeStruct("id speaker country");
var row = new Item(1, 'john', 'au');
alert(row.speaker); // displays: john