In the last post, we learned that we can access the index of an array in the modern for...of loop by using the entries() iterator which implements a method of the new primitive type Symbol. You are probably familiar with the older primitive types: undefined, null, Boolean, Number, String, and Object. Symbol is a new primitive type! What can Symbols be used for?

  1. to define properties for objects for iteration
  2. to define a global registry of objects
  3. to define some special well-known methods in objects

This post will review these 3 three use cases, so let’s start at the top.

Defining properties for objects in iteration

Symbols are defined using the Symbol() function. The argument passed to this function serves as a description of the Symbol. Each Symbol defined with Symbol() is distinct, even if they have the same argument value.

Symbol('bicycle') === Symbol('bicycle');

// return value
// false

Here is another example that shows how each Symbol defined with Symbol() is unique:

const subway = Symbol('transit');

const streetcar = Symbol('transit');

subway === streetcar

// return value
// false

Below, we have a car object with properties of make, model, and color.

const make = Symbol('makeValue');
const model = Symbol('modelValue');
const color = 'colorValue';

const car = {
  id: 1,
  [make]: 'Honda',
  [model]: 'Civic',
  [color]: 'green'
};

Let’s iterate over the properties of car using for...in and see we what we get:

for (const property in car) {
  console.log(property + ': ' + car[property]);
}

// return value
// id: 1
// colorValue: green
// undefined

Hmm, the properies defined as Symbols seem to be hidden. Now, let’s query for the car property names and their values:

console.log(Object.getOwnPropertyNames(car));

["id", "colorValue"]

Hmm, the properies defined with Symbol() also seem to be hidden here too. This is part of what makes Symbol useful: all Symbol properties are hidden from normal iteration. Keep in mind, they are not private, meaning that any code with access to the object can access and change the value for the Symbol property. Because the properties are hidden, it’s nice to have a method that will expose an object’s hidden Symbol properties. The code below shows how to view, access, and change a Symbol property.

We can view all the Symbols of an object.

console.log(Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(car));

// return value
// [Symbol(makeValue), Symbol(modelValue)]

We can access the Symbols of an object.

console.log(car[make]);

// return value
// Honda

And we can change that property value.

car[make] = "Toyota"

console.log(car[make]);

//return value
// "Toyota"

Symbol can be used to define a global registry of objects

Remember when I said earlier that each Symbol is distinct, even if they have the same argument value? Well, there’s an exception to that if you define Symbol using the for() method. In the code below, each property is defined using Symbol.for() with the same description passed in. The first call to for() creates a unique Symbol and the second call to for() fetches the Symbol created in the last call through the global registry. The call to keyFor() returns the key associated with the Symbol in the global registry.

const hoverBoard = Symbol.for('transit');
const electricScooter = Symbol.for('transit');

console.log(typeof(hoverBoard));
console.log(hoverBoard);
console.log(hoverBoard === electricScooter);

console.log(Symbol.keyFor(electricScooter));
console.log('transit' === Symbol.keyFor(electricScooter));

// return value
// symbol
// Symbol(transit)
// true
// transit
// true

Symbol can be used to define some special well-known methods in objects

The ecma has all the well-known Symbols listed on their website, but here are few common ones:

  • Symbol.iterator
  • Symbol.match
  • Symbol.replace
  • Symbol.search

String’s search() method depends on a special well-known Symbol. If the argument given to search is not an intance of RegExp, it the creates a RegExp using the given argument as the constructor argument.

Below we have an instance of motorcyles with 2 attributes: make and color. The Symbol.search() method takes a value as a parameter and searches for the content in the make field. The method also prints an informational message about the value of this and the value of the value argument that is passed into the Symbol.search() method.

class Motorcycle {
	constructor(make, color) {
		this.make = make;
		this.color = color; 
	}

	toString() { return this.make; }

	[Symbol.search](value) {
		console.info('this: ' + this + ', value: ' + value);
		return value.search(this.make);
	}
}

const motorcycles = [
  new Motorcycle('Honda', 'red'),
  new Motorcycle('BMW', 'red'),
  new Motorcycle('Kawasaki.', 'green'),
  new Motorcycle('Harley-Davidson', 'black'),
  new Motorcycle('Yamaha', 'red') ];

const makes = 'Honda, Harley-Davidson, BMW';
for (const motorcycle of motorcycles) {
  console.log(`Result of search: ${makes.search(motorcycle)}`)
}

// return value 
// this: Honda, value: Honda, Harley-Davidson, BMW
// Result of search: 0
// this: BMW, value: Honda, Harley-Davidson, BMW
// Result of search: 24
// this: Kawasaki., value: Honda, Harley-Davidson, BMW
// Result of search: -1
// this: Harley-Davidson, value: Honda, Harley-Davidson, BMW
// Result of search: 7
// this: Yamaha, value: Honda, Harley-Davidson, BMW
// Result of search: -1

Below the class Motorcycle, the code creates an array set to the variable motorcycles, which includes a bunch of instances of Motorcycle. Below that, we can see the code sets the variable makes to a string that includes 3 different motorycyle brands (Honda, Harley-Davidson, BMW) Below, that we can see that the code loops through the motorcycles array and passes each instance of Motorcycle found in the motorcycles array into the argument of makes.search(). You can see in the code that the specially defined Symbol.search method found in the Motorcycle class is called in make.search(motorcycle).

Because the special well-known method Symbol.search() is defined in the class, when we call String's search() method, it uses the special well-known method defined in the class to execute the search.

closing thoughts

I’ve never actually seen or used Symbols in my professional work or “just for fun” work. This Mozilla blog post helped me to get a better idea of how Symbols can help with reducing errors and debugging.