Multi Dimensional Array | Object

Report · Sep 16, 2015

Hi all

I have created a script that traverses all tables in a document and collects text strings that are formatted with a character style "Footnote_Marker".

(InDesign does not support Footnotes in Tables.)

Every found entry gives me 2 parts:

myPage (this is an object) and myFootnoteString (This is a string)

var myPageName = myPage.name; <----- This gives me a human readable page number

The string can be something like "1" or "7" or "***"or "VISA only"

Many entries of "1" could be found on Page X, (The footnote will always mean the same thing in the complete catalogue, for example 1 = Made in Italy

So now I need to hold this data in a sensible construct.

I would like to have only one Array Key for the pages with many Secondary Key entries for the string.

Also if I find the Footnote marker "1" many times on the page it needs to go into the Array only once.

And I need to be able to alpha sort the Footnotes.

I already played with Arrays and Objects in Javascript but nothing works for me...

Appreciate your help

Regards

Romano

Report · Sep 16, 2015

Here is some code I work with:

var myPageFootnoteData = {};

var myPage;

var myFootnoteString;

myPage = "aaaa";

myFootnoteString = "AAAAA";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "bbbb";

myFootnoteString = "BBBBBB";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "cccc";

myFootnoteString = "CCCCCCCC";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "dddd";

myFootnoteString = "DD";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "dddd";

myFootnoteString = "12345";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "dddd";

myFootnoteString = "12345";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

$.writeln("Checkpoint_02");

outputDataArray(myPageFootnoteData);

function addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString){

$.writeln("This is my main object: " + myPageFootnoteData);

$.writeln("This is the page: " + myPage);

$.writeln("This is the footnote: " + myFootnoteString);

//$.writeln("Cold call: show me the page: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage].myPage);

//var myPageHolder;

var myPageHolder;

var myFootnoteStringHolder;

if(myPageHolder in myPageFootnoteData == false){

myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder] = {};

$.writeln("It did not exist We insert this: " + myPage);

myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder] = myPage;

$.writeln("OK show me the page: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder]);

}

$.writeln("Checkpoint_01a");

if (myFootnoteStringHolder in myPageFootnoteData == false) {

$.writeln("Checkpoint_01");

//$.writeln("2OK show me the page: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage]);

myPageFootnoteData[myFootnoteStringHolder] = {};

}

if (myFootnoteStringHolder in myPageFootnoteData == false) {

$.writeln("Checkpoint_20");

}

Report · Sep 16, 2015

Here is a workable code.

I can create the first outer Array (it is actually a raw Object).

But the inner Array loop is not working at all.

It is possible that I don't understand the Array concept at all. So if you can give me a helping hand that would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Romano

main();

function main(){

$.writeln("Checkpoint_0000");

var myPageFootnoteData = {};

myPageFootnoteDataFunction(myPageFootnoteData);

}

function myPageFootnoteDataFunction(myPageFootnoteData){

$.writeln("This is the Object myPageFootnoteData: " + myPageFootnoteData);

$.writeln("This is the Object myPageFootnoteData Length: " + myPageFootnoteData.length);

var myPage;

var myFootnoteString;

myPage = "1";

myFootnoteString = "AAAAA";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "2";

myFootnoteString = "BBBBB";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "3";

myFootnoteString = "CCCCC";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "4";

myFootnoteString = "DDDDD";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "4";

myFootnoteString = "12345";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "4";

myFootnoteString = "12345";

addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString);

$.writeln("Checkpoint_02");

outputDataArray(myPageFootnoteData);

$.writeln("Checkpoint_03");

for(var a in myPageFootnoteData){

//$.writeln("[" + a + "]" + " ___ " + myDataArray.myPageName + " ___ " + myDataArray .myFootnoteString);

$.writeln("Array Key 01 and 02 Outside [" + myPageFootnoteData + "]" + " ___ " + myPageFootnoteData + " ___ ");

for(var b in myPageFootnoteData){

//$.writeln(string = string + myPageFootnoteData+",");

$.writeln("Array Key 01 and 02 Inside [" + myPageFootnoteData + "]" + " ___ " + myPageFootnoteData + " ___ ");

}

function addPageFootnote(myPageFootnoteData, myPage, myFootnoteString){

$.writeln("This is my main object: " + myPageFootnoteData);

$.writeln("This is the page: " + myPage);

$.writeln("This is the footnote: " + myFootnoteString);

var myPageHolder;

var myFootnoteStringHolder;

if(myPageHolder in myPageFootnoteData == false){

myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder] = {};

$.writeln("It did not exist We insert this: " + myPage);

myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder] = myPage;

$.writeln("OK show me the page: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder]);

}

$.writeln("Checkpoint_01a");

if (myFootnoteStringHolder in myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder] == false) {

$.writeln("Checkpoint_01");

//$.writeln("2OK show me the page: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage]);

myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder] = {};

}

if (myFootnoteStringHolder in myPageFootnoteData[myPageHolder] == false) {

$.writeln("Checkpoint_20");

}

//$.writeln("3OK show me the page: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage]);

//$.writeln("4: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage][myFootnoteString]);

//myPageFootnoteData[myPage][myFootnoteString] = myFootnoteString;

//$.writeln("5: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage][myFootnoteString]);

//myPageFootnoteData[myPage][myFootnoteString] = myFootnoteString;

//$.writeln("Final test A: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage]);

//$.writeln("Final test B: " + myPageFootnoteData[myPage][myFootnoteString]);

}

function outputDataArray(myPageFootnoteData){

for(var a in myPageFootnoteData){

$.writeln("Array Key 01 [" + a + "]");

$.writeln("Checkpoint_10");

for(var b in myPageFootnoteData){

$.writeln("Checkpoint_11");

$.writeln("Array Key 02 [" + b + "]" );

}

Report · Sep 17, 2015

Hi Romano,

Maybe you could use a method along these lines:

Two objects: 'known' to keep track of notes placed on a page and and 'obj' to store your data

known = {};
obj = {};

For every found object, (a) if the page doesn't exist as a key, add a key, its value will be the string as a single-element array; (b) if the page key exists, add the string to the array if it's not yet in the array:

if (obj[myPage] === undefined) {
   obj[myPage] = [myString];
} else {
   if (!known[myPage+'/'+myString]) {
      obj[myPage].push(myString);
      known[myPage+'/'+myString] = true;
   }
}

Now you have an object with unsorted keys/page numbers, and each key has an array of unsorted arrays. You can't sort objects, so transfer it to an array. And while you're doing this, sort the arrays:

arr = [];
for (i in obj) {
   arr.push ({page: Number(i), notes: obj.sort()});
}

Then sort the array by page number:

arr.sort (function(a,b) {return a.page-b.page});

Hope this helps

Peter

Report · Sep 17, 2015

Hi Peter

Thank you very much!

I still try to understand what happens when we go into the arr

I guess page and notes is what I am looking for.

How do I know travers and output the arr data?

I end up with the keys, not the data that they hold, I think

Regards

Romano

main();

function main(){

$.writeln("Checkpoint_0000");

var known = {};

var obj = {};

myPageFootnoteDataFunction(known, obj);

mySortPageFootnote(known, obj);

}

function myPageFootnoteDataFunction(known, obj){

var myPage;

var myFootnoteString;

myPage = "1";

myFootnoteString = "AAAAA";

addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "2";

myFootnoteString = "BBBBB";

addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "3";

myFootnoteString = "CCCCC";

addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "4";

myFootnoteString = "DDDDD";

addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "4";

myFootnoteString = "ddd";

addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "4";

myFootnoteString = "12345";

addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString);

myPage = "4";

myFootnoteString = "12345";

addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString);

}

function addPageFootnote(known, obj, myPage, myFootnoteString){

$.writeln("This is the page: " + myPage);

$.writeln("This is the footnote: " + myFootnoteString);

if (obj[myPage] === undefined) {

obj[myPage] = [myFootnoteString];

} else {

if (!known[myPage+'/'+myFootnoteString]) {

obj[myPage].push(myFootnoteString);

known[myPage+'/'+myFootnoteString] = true;

}

$.writeln("2OK show me the page: " + obj[myPage]);

$.writeln("3OK show me the page: " + known[myPage+'/'+myFootnoteString]);

}

function mySortPageFootnote(known, obj){

arr = [];

for (i in obj) {

arr.push ({page: Number(i), notes: obj.sort()});

}

arr.sort (function(a,b) {return a.page-b.page});

outputDataArray(arr);

}

function outputDataArray(arr){

for(var a in arr){

$.writeln("Array Key 01 [" + a + "]");

for(var b in arr){

$.writeln("Array Key 02 [" + b + "]" );

for(var c in arr){

$.writeln("Array Key 03 [" + c + "]" );

}

Report · Sep 17, 2015

You could write the array like this:

for (i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
   $.writeln ('Page: ' + arr.page + ', notes: ' + arr.notes.join(', '));
}

P.

Report · Sep 17, 2015

Super! I had no idea about the .join.

Thank you very much for this. All the best and talk soon.

Regards

Romano

Multi Dimensional Array | Object

1 Correct answer