JS Data Structures

Data Structures (JavaScript)

Map vs Object, Set vs Array

• Prefer Map when keys are non-string (numbers, objects), when you add/remove entries often, when you need .size
• Prefer Object when keys are string/symbol, the shape is static and known at creation, or you need JSON serialization
• Prefer Set when uniqueness matters or you need fast .has() lookups
• Prefer Array when order and duplicates matter; when have fixed size array; need index access

Linked List

Single-linked list:

class LinkedList {
  #head = null;
  #length = 0;

  push(data) {
    this.#head = { data, next: this.#head };
    this.#length++;
  }

  pop() {
    if (!this.#head) return undefined;
    const { data } = this.#head;
    this.#head = this.#head.next;
    this.#length--;
    return data;
  }

  *[Symbol.iterator]() {
    let node = this.#head;
    while (node) {
      yield node.data;
      node = node.next;
    }
  }
}

Queue

Basic queue with array:

class Queue {
  #buffer = [];
  enqueue(item) {
    this.#buffer.push(item);
  }
  dequeue() {
    return this.#buffer.shift();
  }
  get length() {
    return this.#buffer.length;
  }
}

V8-optimized queue uses unrolled linked nodes with fixed-size buffers to avoid shift() O(n) cost:

class Node {
  constructor(size) {
    this.buffer = new Array(size);
    this.readIdx = 0;
    this.writeIdx = 0;
    this.next = null;
  }
  enqueue(item) {
    if (this.writeIdx >= this.buffer.length) return false;
    this.buffer[this.writeIdx++] = item;
    return true;
  }
  dequeue() {
    if (this.readIdx >= this.writeIdx) return undefined;
    return this.buffer[this.readIdx++];
  }
}

Circular Buffer

class CircularBuffer {
  #buffer;
  #size;
  #readIdx = 0;
  #writeIdx = 0;

  constructor(size) {
    this.#size = size;
    this.#buffer = new Array(size);
  }

  write(item) {
    this.#buffer[this.#writeIdx] = item;
    this.#writeIdx = (this.#writeIdx + 1) % this.#size;
  }

  read() {
    const item = this.#buffer[this.#readIdx];
    this.#readIdx = (this.#readIdx + 1) % this.#size;
    return item;
  }
}

Binary Search Tree

class BST {
  constructor(data) {
    this.data = data;
    this.left = null;
    this.right = null;
  }

  insert(data) {
    if (data < this.data) {
      if (this.left) this.left.insert(data);
      else this.left = new BST(data);
    } else {
      if (this.right) this.right.insert(data);
      else this.right = new BST(data);
    }
  }
}

Source: metarhia/metaskills — distributed by TomeVault.