Does Javascript have associative arrays?

Question

Does Javascript have associative arrays? Please explain.

Answer 1

Instead of associative arrays. Javascript has objects. Properties of an object are addressed using a string.

 var obj1 = {};  // declare empty object
 var obj2 = {a: 1, b: 'string', c: [4,5]}; // obj with 3 properties, a, b, and c
        // note that the 'c' property contains an anonymous array 

 alert(obj2.a); // shows 1
 obj2.a = 'another string'; // redefine the 'a' property
 obj2.cookie = 'oatmeal'; // add a new property to the object
 obj2['ice_cream'] = {vendor: 'Beyers', 
                      flavor: 'Chocolate Surprise'}; // add anonymous object as
                           // a new property for the object

 assert(obj2.a === obj2['a']); // two ways to retrieve the value
 var i = 'a'; // using an index varable
 assert(obj2.a === obj2[i]);  // note the i does not have apostrophes around it

See the Quirksmode docs