GAZAR

Principal Engineer | Mentor

Exploring Sets Data Structure in TypeScript: A Comprehensive Guide

Exploring Sets Data Structure in TypeScript: A Comprehensive Guide

A Set in TypeScript is a collection of unique elements, where each element occurs only once. Unlike arrays, Sets do not maintain any specific order of elements, and they automatically eliminate duplicates.

Key Features of Sets:

  • Uniqueness: Sets can only contain unique elements, ensuring that no duplicates are allowed.
  • No Order: Elements in a Set are not stored in any specific order, and there is no guarantee of the order in which elements are iterated.
  • Efficient Operations: Sets offer efficient methods for adding, removing, and checking the existence of elements, with constant-time complexity for most operations.
const set = new Set<number>();
set.add(1);
set.add(2);
set.add(3); 

set.add(1); // IGNORED
set.add(2); // IGNORED

console.log("Size of Set:", set.size); // 3
console.log("Contains 2:", set.has(2)); // TRUE
console.log("Contains 4:", set.has(4)); // FALSE

set.delete(2);

for (let item of set) {
  console.log(item);
}

And for objects

const set = new Set<number>();

const person = { id: 1, name:'Gaz'}
set.add(person);
set.add(person); // IGNORED

// however
set.add({ id: 1, name:'Gaz'}); // THIS WORKS! DUPLICATED

Sets data structure in TypeScript provides a convenient way to manage collections of unique elements with efficient operations. Whether you need to remove duplicates from a list of items, perform set operations such as union, intersection, or difference, Sets offer a simple and effective solution. By leveraging Sets in your TypeScript applications, you can streamline data management and improve performance in scenarios where uniqueness is essential.