merge-objects

Merges multiple objects into a new object.

Compared to Object.assign() or object spreads {...obj1, ...obj2}, values are not assigned as a whole. Instead, properties that don't hold the value undefined are recursively merged. The difference to Lodash's _.merge or jQuery's deep extend is that arrays are concatenated.

Features:

• Type-safe: computes intersection of input arguments
• Fail-safe: allows any input type but only merges objects
• Immutable: creates a new object instead of assigning to the first argument
• Concatenates arrays []
• Recursively merges objects {}
• Skips undefined properties
• Overwrites properties if value is not undefined
• Merges up to 4 objects, composes for more.

Installation

npm i @danieldietrich/merge-objects

Usage

The module supports ES6 import and CommonJS require style.

import mergeObjects from '@danieldietrich/merge-objects';

// -- merge n objects
// = {a: {b: 2, c: [1, 2], d: 3, e: 4}}
mergeObjects(
    {a: {b: 1, c: [1], d: 3}},
    {a: {b: 2, c: [2]}},
    {} || undefined,
    {a: {b: undefined, e: 4}}
);

// -- remove undefined properties
// = {b: [1, undefined, 2], c: {}}
mergeObjects(
    {a: undefined, b: [1, undefined, 2], c: {d: undefined}}
);

Type safety

While merge-objects works well with JavaScript, it comes with TypeScript types. The merged object type is inferred by the TypeScript compiler:

/*
const o: {
    0: number;
    a: number;
    b: number[];
    c: number[];
    f: () => void;
} & {
    0: number;
    a: string;
    b: number[];
    c: string[];
    f: (arg: number) => true;
}
*/
const o = mergeObjects(
    {0: 1, a: 1,   b: [1], c: [1],   f: () => {}},
    {0: 2, a: "2", b: [2], c: ["2"], f: (arg: number) => true},
    {} || undefined,
);

✅ When objects have similar field types we walk on the sunny path. The compiler infers the union type of the input arguments. The merge result is the intersection of non-nullable input types. This is exactly the way Object.assign() works, see type definitions in lib.es2015.core.d.ts.

// const first: number
const first = o[0];

// const b: number[]
const b = o.b;

// compiler error "Property 'x' does not exist on type '...'."
const x = o.x;

✴️ If object fields have orthogonal types, the intersection type results in the type never. Functions are an exception, here we get different overloads. However, these might not reflect the actual field type at runtime.

// computed type: string & number, eff. never;
// actual type: string
const a = o.a;

// computed type: number[] & string[], eff. never[]
// actual type: Array<number | string>
const c = o.c;

// computed type: (() => void) & ((arg: number) => true)
// actual type: ((arg: number) => true)
const f = o.f;

Bottom line: thou shalt not merge incompatible objects.

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Copyright © 2020 by Daniel Dietrich. Released under the MIT license.