New MooTools Methods: .from()

By  on  

MooTools 1.3 beta 2 was recently released and you may see a few new methods implemented to String, Array, Number, and Function: from. The from method of each of those Types returns an object of that type. Simply put: you'll always receive back an object of that type based on what you give it.

The New Method Code

Function.from = function(item){
	return (typeOf(item) == 'function') ? item : function(){
		return item;
	};
};

Array.from = function(item){
	if (item == null) return [];
	return (Type.isEnumerable(item) && typeof item != 'string') ? (typeOf(item) == 'array') ? item : Array.prototype.slice.call(item) : [item];
};

Number.from = function(item){
	var number = parseFloat(item);
	return isFinite(number) ? number : null;
};

String.from = function(item){
	return item + '';
};

The from method is added to String, Array, Number, and Function natives. Enough with the underlying code though -- examples are easier to understand.

Function.from, Array.from, Number.from, String.from Examples

Array.from('Item');
//returns ['Item'] (array type)

Function.from('Item, Whoa, Hey');
//returns function() { return 'Item, Whoa', Hey'; } (function type)

String.from(function() { alert('MooTools FTW!'); });
//returns function () { alert("MooTools FTW!"); } (string type)

Number.from('8765309');
//returns 8765309 (number type)

Each example above shows you what's returned by each method. Being able to generate a given object type from any argument using from can save you a lot of time -- especially when a given MooTools class or method requires an argument of a specific type. from is just another example of how MooTools can make your JavaScript life easier!

Recent Features

  • By
    Camera and Video Control with HTML5

    Client-side APIs on mobile and desktop devices are quickly providing the same APIs.  Of course our mobile devices got access to some of these APIs first, but those APIs are slowly making their way to the desktop.  One of those APIs is the getUserMedia API...

  • By
    CSS @supports

    Feature detection via JavaScript is a client side best practice and for all the right reasons, but unfortunately that same functionality hasn't been available within CSS.  What we end up doing is repeating the same properties multiple times with each browser prefix.  Yuck.  Another thing we...

Incredible Demos

Discussion

  1. Oh great! :)

    nomore switch-cases for specific type argument…
    Life is really easier with MooTools

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!