Basic JavaScript: Using Objects for Lookups

Objects can be thought of as a key/value storage, like a dictionary. If you have tabular data, you can use an object to "lookup" values rather than a switch statement or an if/else chain. This is most useful when you know that your input data is limited to a certain range.

Here is an example of a simple reverse alphabet lookup:

var alpha = {
  1:"Z",
  2:"Y",
  3:"X",
  4:"W",
  ...
  24:"C",
  25:"B",
  26:"A"
};
alpha[2]; // "Y"
alpha[24]; // "C"

var value = 2;
alpha[value]; // "Y"

Convert the switch statement into an object called lookup. Use it to look up val and assign the associated string to the result variable.

Basic JavaScript: Chaining If Else Statements

if/else statements can be chained together for complex logic. Here is pseudocode of multiple chained if / else if statements:

if (condition1) {
  statement1
} else if (condition2) {
  statement2
} else if (condition3) {
  statement3
. . .
} else {
  statementN
}

Write chained if/else if statements to fulfill the following conditions:

num < 5 - return "Tiny"
num < 10 - return "Small"
num < 15 - return "Medium"
num < 20 - return "Large"
num >= 20 - return "Huge"